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A Summary of the 

History of the 

Great War 




A SUMMARY OF THE 

HISTORY OF THE 

GREAT WAR 



By ROBERT J. McLAUGHLIN, A. M. 

WELSH-WEST SCHOOL 
PHILADELPHL\ 



philadelphia 

Walther Printing House^, Third Street and Girard Avenue 

1919 






Copyright, 1919 

By ROBERT J. McLAUGHT.IN 

Published January, 1919 



A5L2174 

JAN 28 1919 



A SUMMARY OF THE 
HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR 



I. WHY GERMANY DESIRED WAR 

Note. — For the proper understanding of the causes of the war, a 
knowledge of European history from 1815 is necessary. See Mc- 
Laughlin ^s ** Summary of European History from 1815 to 1914." 

Germany belieA^ed that war was necessary for .a nation 
in order to unify it and to give it moral health. Bernhardi, 
a German writer, said that a war would "elevate the people 
and destroy the diseases that threaten the national health." 
War was valuable, also, as giving a nation the chance to 
expand by the addition of conquered territory. Friedrich 
Nietzsche, a German philosopher, wrote: ''I do not advise 
you to work, but to fight. I do not advise you to com- 
promise and make peace, but to conquer." Bernhardi said 
in his book on "Germany and the Next War": "Might 
gives the right to occupy or to conquer. Migiit is at once 
the supreme right." 

Germany believed that war was necessary if a nation 
desired to develop, and she pointed to her history as proof 
of the correctness of her view. The Great Elector, Fred- 
erick William (1620-1688), by intrigue and military power, 
made Brandenburg a powerful state ; and his son made the 
country into the kingdom of Prussia, in 1701. Frederick 
William I., a "crabbed, miserly despot," who ruled from 
1713 to 1740, raised his army from 38,000 to 80,000. It 
was this autocrat who once said: "Salvation is of the Lord. 
All else is in my province." In 1740, his son Frederick II., 
now known as Frederick the Great, ascended the throne of 



Prussia. That very year he attacked Austria, then ruled 
by the young Maria Theresa, and seized the province of 
Silesia. This province caused another war in 1756, the 
great Seven Years' War. It involved nearly all Europe, 
and the fighting extended to India and America. At the 
cost of tremendous expenditures of men, Frederick finally 
triumphed. Frederick, as Macaulay said, was a man "with- 
out fear, without faith, and without merc3^" He once said 
"Take what you can; you are never wrong unless you are 
obliged to give back." This unscrupulous policy laid the 
foundation of modern Germany. 

William IL, like nearly every other Hohenzollern prince, 
wished to rival Frederick the Great by some successful 
war. To give Germany what the Kaiser called "a place 
in the sun" meant increased colonial possessions, more com- 
merce, and greater international influence for Germany. He 
dreamed of a world empire, ruled by his sword. 

Another teacher of German world-empire was Heinrich 
von Treitschke, who from 1874 to 1896 was professor of 
history in the University of Berlin. By his lectures and 
his writings he taught that the state was not bound by 
the moral laws that applied to individuals; hence treaties 
had no real meaning when there was a chance of a vic- 
torious war that would give Germany more territory. Gen- 
eral Bernhardi in his book called "Germany and the Next 
War," which was published in 1911, showed German am- 
bitions, boldly saying, "We must not hold back in the hard 
struggle for the sovereignty of the world." 

The teachings of these leaders caused the German peo- 
ple to adopt the idea that it was their duty to spread over 
the earth the blessings of German "Kultur," or German 
civilizaticn and philosophy of life. This Pan-Germanic (All- 
German^ idea in its limited sense meant the securing of 



German expansion in Europe by the control or the absorp- 
tion of feeble states like Austria, Turkey, and the Balkan 
States. Pan-Germanism in its broader sense meant world 
empire. The Pan-German League, which was established 
in 1890, aimed to unite all the Germans on the globe and 
to further Germany's colonial expansion in order to secure a 
world market for German products. Hence the people of 
Germany felt that a short, victorious war could not come 
too soon. 

Note. — A mighty nation which ' ' rejected the dream of universal 
peace throughout the world as non-German" (the Crown Prince, 
''Germany in Arms"); a nation trained for war as a biological ne- 
cessity in which "Might proves itself the supreme Eight" (Bernhardi, 
"Germany and the Next War"); a nation which had been taught 
that ' ' f rightfulness " is a lawful and essential weapon in war (Von 
Clausewitz) ; and whose generals said, "Frankly, we are and must 
be barbarians" (Von Diefurth, "Hamburger Nachrichtung"), while 
their philosophers declared that ' ' The German is the superior type of 
the species homo sapiens" (Woltman) ; a nation whose imperial head 
commended to his people the example of the Huns, and proclaimed, 
"It is to the empire of the world that the German genius aspires" 
(Kaiser Wilhelm, speech at Aix-la-Chapelle, June 20, 1902) ; a nation 
thus armed, instructed, disciplined, and demoralized had broken 
loose. ... In the tumult and darkness which enfolded Europe, 
the werewolf was at large. — Henry Van Dyke, 

II. MILITARISM 

Militarism is the giving of excessive prominence by a 
government, or nation, to military training, with a reliance 
upon military force in every foreign difficulty. It exalts 
the army to the chief place in the state, and insists on the 
need of constant preparation for war and on the main- 
tenance of vast military and naval forces. Where mili- 
tarism prevails, the civil population stands lower in rank 
than the army officials. 

The military class has been dominant in Prussia from the 
days of the Great Elector. The German Empire developed 
from Brandenburg-Prussia by means of military force. 



While at first the army was needed to protect the country 
from hostile neighbors, it was later used as a means of 
conquest. Bismarck in 1862 said improvements in German 
affairs could not "be accomplished by speeches and reso- 
lutions of a majority, but only by iron and blood." Em- 
peror William II. expressed the same view when he de- 
clared: "It is the soldier and the army, not parliamentary 
majorities and votes that have welded the German Empire 
together." It was this reliance on his army that made him 
so ready to declare war in 1914. 

Armaments, or land and naval forces and defences, 
steadily increased in Europe from 1871, until the continent 
became an "armed camp." Military service was compulsory 
almost everywhere, young men being obliged to serve from 
one to three years in the army or navy. In the peace period 
just preceding the Great War, the German army numbered 
800,000; and when the war began in 1914, Germany had an 
army of 4,250,000. The armies of other powers at the be- 
ginning of the war numbered 4,100,000 in Russia; 3,600,000 
in Austria; 4,000,000 in France; and 707,000 in Great 
Britain. 

Germany, the first of the military powers of the world, 
had also a powerful navy. In the Spanish-American War 
of 1898, Germany would have directed the German fleet 
under Admiral von Diedrichs to attack Admiral Dewey at 
Manila, if her fleet had been strong enough to defy America 
assisted by England. Her jealousy and hatred of England 
were shown clearly in the Boer War (1899-1902) ; and the 
Kaiser and Admiral von Tirpitz used this feeling to secure 
a greatly increased naval appropriation from the Reichstag 
in 1900. The British government, having only a small army, 
relied on its navy for its protection and for securing the im- 
portations of food and supplies that were essential to its 



existence. England, therefore, always maintained a navy 
as large as that of any other two European powers com- 
bined. In 1906, the government of England proposed that 
England and Germany should limit the building of dread- 
noughts. England did reduce her naval construction in 
1906, while Germany increased hers. In 1912, the British 
proposed "a naval holiday" to reduce warship production, 
but Germany refused. Hence both nations continued to in- 
crease taxation in order to meet the cost of this naval arma- 
ment. 

With such land and naval forces, Germany opposed the 
settlement of any difficulty with another country by arbi- 
tration. She preferred "to rattle the scabbard," and scare 
off opposition by threat of war, knowing herself fully pre- 
pared while other nations were entirely unprepared for bat- 
tle. Other powers felt that the day of war had passed and 
that all international disputes could be settled by arbitra- 
tion. Germany relied on her sword. Her view was the 
Kaiser's as expressed to the Army of the East in 1914: 
"Remember you are the chosen people. ... I am the 
instrument of the Almighty; I am his sword, his agent. 
Woe and death to all those who shall oppose my will." 

Note. — The Zabern affair occurred in 1913. In the garrison at 
Zabern, in Alsace, was a young lieutenant, Baron von Forstner, who 
had made insulting remarks about the townspeople. When an angry 
crowd gathered before the barracks, the soldiers arrested fifteen of 
them. The colonel was tried for this interference in civilian matters, 
but was acquitted. Von Forstner next had a quarrel with a lame shoe- 
maker of Zabern; while two soldiers held the man, the lieutenant 
slashed him with his sabre, because he considered the shoemaker's re- 
marks insulting. The lieutenant was tried, but finally acquitted as 
acting in ' ' self-defence. ' ' The Reichstag did pass a A^ote of censure 
on the government, but that meant little to the military party. 

III. INTERNATIONAL LAW. 

By international law, or the law of nations, we mean 
the body of rules which civilized nations feel obliged to 



obey in their mutual intercourse; it denotes the principles 
and rules which govern intercourse between independent 
states. The founder of this science was Hugo Grotius, 
whose work on the law of war and peace ("De Jure Belli et 
Pacis") was published in 1625. In tlie progress of the cen- 
turies a great body of law was developed on this subject. 
Czar Nicholas II., summoned the nations to a conference 
at the Hague in order to consider what further international 
agreement could be made regarding war. It met in the 
summer of 1899. It discussed the questions of a limitation 
of armaments, of the peaceful arbitration of international 
disputes, and of various war practices. Several resolutions 
were adopted, thus becoming a part of international law, 
and the Hague Tribunal was established. This was a per- 
manent court of arbitration composed of representatives 
from various nations, to which any two countries having a 
dispute, might submit their claims for settlement. A second 
Hague Peace Conference met in 1907. It established certain 
rules regarding the bombardment of unfortified towns, and 
the rights of neutrals in war, though little attention was 
later paid to these regulations. It would have passed a 
resolution in favor of compulsory arbitration of certain 
differences, if Emperor William had not opposed this plan. 
The historian Treitschke wrote: "The establishment of an 
international court of arbitration as a permanent institution 
is irreconcilable with the nature of the state." He and the 
Kaiser preferred relying on military force to sustain their 
cause. 

IV. DIRECT REASONS FOR INTERNATIONAL 
FRICTION 

Alsace-Lorraine. — Alsace-Lorraine was ceded to Ger- 
many by France in 1871, as a result of the Franco-Prussian 



War. Its area is about 5,600 square miles, and its popu- 
lation in 1900 was 1,800,000. Its chief value lay in its 
iron mines, nearly three-fourths of the iron ore mined by 
Germany in 1913 coming from Alsace-Lorraine. Hence 
apart from the permanent desire to redeem the insult to 
French honor in 1871, France desired to secure this rich 
province, feeling that it belonged to her and that its in- 
habitants desired this change. 

"Italia Irredenta." — The desire of Italy to regain 
"Italia Irredenta," or unredeemed Italy, from Austria was 
another source of trouble. This Italia Irredenta included 
the province of Trentino (the southern half of the Austrian 
Tyrol), Istria, and part of Dalmatia on the eastern shores 
of the Adriatic. Trieste, Trent, and Fiume were the chief 
cities of this section. The people here were largely of the 
Italian race; they hated their Austrian master, and desired 
to become a part of Italy. 

The Disputes over Colonies. — Colonial rivalries led to 
frequent disputes. The control of China, Egypt, Persia, 
and Mesopotamia led to friction. The Moroccan question 
had threatened war twice. (See "Development of Ger- 
many.") Germany, besides her dispute with France over 
Morocco, had a difficulty with the United States and Eng- 
land over the Samoan Islands in 1898-1899, until England 
withdrew, leaving the islands to be divided between Ger- 
many and the United States. While Germany had no claim 
to the Philippines, war might easily have resulted from the 
presence of the German fleet there in 1898, if the British 
admiral. Sir Edward Chichester, had not given Admiral 
Dewey his friendly support. In 1895, President Cleveland 
informed the British government that the United States 
must insist on arbitration to settle the boundary dispute 
between Venezuela and England, and war was averted only 



10 

by England's agreement. In 1902, Germany, after picking 
a quarrel with Venezuela, decided to occupy a naval base 
there. When President Roosevelt insisted that Germany 
abandon this violation of the Monroe doctrine, she felt 
obliged to agree. 

''Drang nach Osten.^^ — ^Baffled in her plan of colonial 
expansion, Germany turned to the Balkan States and Tur- 
key for new conquests. The Balkans had been the scene 
of several wars, and the rival influences there of Russia, 
Austria, Germany, and England made this field a special 
cause of European controversy. Germany, acting through 
weak Austria, aimed to make German influence supreme in 
this region. This so-called "Drang nach Osten" (pressure 
or impulse toward the East) conflicted with Russia's desire 
to secure Constantinople and a trade outlet to the Mediter- 
ranean. Germany was already the dominant influence in 
the Turkish government at Constantinople; and her Berlin 
to Bagdad railway, begun in Asia Minor in 1902, excited 
much English concern. Such a road, if completed to the 
Persian Gulf, would, under the control of scheming Ger- 
many, threaten England's communications with India. 

The Conflict of Balkan Claims. — As a further source 
of danger, the conflicting claims of the Balkan States to 
territory in southeastern Europe always threatened a war 
which would involve the great Powers. Thus Rumania de- 
sired Transylvania and Bukowina, in the southeastern part 
of Austria-Hungary, and Bessarabia in southwestern Rus- 
sia. Serbia longed to unite with her the Slavs of Croatia, 
Slavonia, and Bosnia, in Austria-Hungary. Macedonia was 
desired by Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia. Every European 
power, therefore, was on the alert in the Balkans. 

Note. — ' ' The so-called Balkan question is the phase of the Eastern 
question that arises from the relations of Turkey, the Balkan states, 



11 



and Russia to each other and the rest of Europe." (See ''Develop- 
ment of Turkey and the Balkans.") 

Commercial Outlets.— Another source of international 
friction was the desire for commercial outlets. Austria had 
only the seaport of Trieste, and hoped some day to secure 
Saloniki, in Greece, on an arm of the ^gean Sea, and terri- 
tory connecting it with Austria; she also desired Scntari, 
Avlona, and Durazzo, the Adriatic ports of Albania. Mon^ 
tenegro also aimed at possessing Scutari. Austria and Ser- 
bia, largely dependent on the Danube for commercial con- 
nection, had no control over the mouth of that river in 
eastern Rumania, and its possession was a great aim m 
these countries. Germany desired Antwerp on the Scheldt 
and Rotterdam, on one of the mouths of the Meuse River, 
these two cities receiving most of the enormous commerce 
of the Rhine valley ; she also wished to own the Sound, a 
narrow Danish strait connecting the Baltic with the Catte- 
gat and the North Sea. Russia had fought repeatedly with 
Turkey to try to gain a Black Sea outlet by the Bosporus 
and the Dardanelles, her great aim being to possess Con- 
stantinople. 

The Balance of Power.— The question of preserving 
the "balance of power" had disturbed Europe for centuries. 
By "balance of power" we mean such an adjustment of 
power among the governments of European countries that 
no one state is powerful enough to interfere with the inde- 
pendence of others. When a country became so powerful 
as to be feared by the other countries, alliances, or coali- 
tions, were formed to oppose it. 

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the rival 

leaders were Austria and France, and each had its allies. 

In the present era, Germany and Austria formed an alliance 

to oppose Russia. Italy joined this league in 1882, making 



12 

the Triple Alliance. This agreement was the work of Bis- 
marck; and by it, Italy pledged herself to maintain a large 
army and to assist Germany and Austria if they should be 
attacked by ''two foreign powers." This Triple Alliance 
for many years preserved peace in central Europe by re- 
straining France from any war of revenge against Germany. 
The Dual Alliance formed between Russia and France for 
mutual protection against the Triple Alliance had its be- 
ginning in 1891, although no formal announcement was 
made until 1895. In 1902, England strengthened her posi- 
tion by a defensive alliance with Japan. In 1904, as a 
result of the efforts of Edward VII., all colonial differences 
were adjusted between France and England, and an informal 
agreement known as the "Entente Cordiale" ("good under- 
standing") was made to "conduct their foreign policies in 
harmony." Russia and England in 1907 made a similar 
agreement to live in peace, and thus a Triple Entente was 
made to oppose the Triple Alliance. 

Pan-Slavism and Pan-Germanism. — The variation of 
race in Europe was another source of international friction. 
With the exception of the Turks, Finns, and Magyars, all 
Europe belongs to the Aryan race. The chief sub-divisions 
of this Ar^^an group, are the Celtic, the Hellenic, the Italic 
(or Latin) , the Lettic, the Slavonic, and the Teutonic. Of the 
Celtic race are the Bretons of Brittany, the Irish, the Welsh, 
and the Scottish Highlanders. The Hellenic race is lim- 
ited to the Greeks. The Italic race includes the French, 
the Italians, the Portuguese, the Spanish, and the Ruman- 
ians; these all speak languages derived from ancient popu- 
lar Latin, mixed with foreign elements, the term Romance 
languages including these various tongues. The Lettic race 
includes the Letts of Livonia and the Lithuanians of west- 
ern Russia. The Slavonic race, or Slavs, are the most numer- 



13 

ous race in Europe, and they are divided into the Eastern 
Slavs, or Russians; the Northwestern Slavs, or Poles, 
Czechs (in Bohemia), and Slovaks (in Hungary) ; and the 
Southern Slavs, or Serbians, Croatians, Bulgarians, Monte- 
negrins, and Slovenes (in Carniola). The Teutonic race 
includes the Germans, the Danes, the Swedes, the Norwe- 
gians, the Dutch, and the English. The word Anglo-Saxon 
is a term frequently used to mean all English-speaking peo- 
ples. Originally the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes were Teu- 
tonic tribes from Schleswig-Holstein and other regions along 
the North Sea, that conquered England in the fifth and sixth 
centuries; their language was called Englisc, or Old Eng- 
lish. Norman French was mixed with this when the 
Normans came to England from France, under William the 
Conqueror, and conquered the English in 1066. Much later, 
the term Anglo-Saxon was used to mean the modern English 
language. No special race friction developed except from 
the two modern ideas of Pan-Slavism and Pan-Germanism. 
Pan-Slavism meant the idea of uniting all peoples of Slavic 
blood, especially under the leadership of Russia; Pan- 
Germanism meant the idea of a political union of all Teu- 
tonic peoples. Such ambitious plans led to intrigue and 
strife, particularly in the Balkans. 

Note — Austro-Hungary in 1914 liad many races. The Magyars of 
Hungary are of mixed Aryan and Mongolian blood. Many Germans 
are found in Austria proper, Styi'ia, Carinthia, and the northern 
Tyrol. Italians were found in great numbers in the Trentino (the 
southern Tyrol), in Istria, and along the eastern shore of the Adriatic, 
especially in the city of Trieste. The Czechs (checks) of Bohemia, 
the Slovaks of northern Hungary, the Slovenes of Carniola, Styria, 
and Carinthia, the Poles of Galicia, and the Croats of Croatia were 
different branches of the great Slavic race. 

German Hatred of England. — Germany's jealousy of 
England was one of the most active causes of the war. 
England had long been supreme in trade and in manufacture; 



14 

Germany had made enormous progress in industrial develop- 
ment since 1870, and threatened soon to surpass her great 
rival. The fact that England had secured rich colonies in 
Asia and Africa long before Germany dreamed of having 
colonies was a bitter blow to German pride. Treitschke, 
the historian, and others taught the people that England 
was Germany's real foe and that her empire would fall at 
the first attack because of the opposition of Ireland, South 
Africa, and India to the home government. England 
steadily avoided all causes of friction and assured Ger- 
many that no English alliance aimed at "aggression upon 
Germany." Germany, however, refused all conciliatory 
efforts on the part of England, and German officers drank 
eagerly the toast to '^Der Tag," the day when war with 
Great Britain should come. 

Note 1. — The people of Germany were systematically taught by 
their leaders to hate England. The greeting, ' * Gott strafe Eng- 
land" (''May God punish England") was heard and seen everywhere 
in Germany, while Ernest Lissauer's "Chant of Hate" was widely 
praised. Dr. Fuehs, a German writer, quoted by J. M. Beck, said : 
' ' We must not hesitate to announce : ' To us is given faith, hope, and 
hatred; but hatred is the greatest among them.' " 

Note 2. — In 1904-1905, Germany tried to form a secret alliance with 
Russia and France against Great Britain, but France refused. The 
evidence of this effort was published in 1917, after the discovery in the 
fallen czar's palace of the letters signed ''Willy" and "Nicky," 
which had passed between the kaiser and the czar. 

Note 3. — In 1913, there was a great increase in "military prepared' 
ness" in Europe. Germany increased its standing army, and the 
Reichstag voted a billion marks for extra military expenses (June, 
1913). France increased its term of compulsory army service from 
two to three years, and all the other European powers were affected 
by this feeling of approaching conflict. The Kiel Canal, called the 
Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, was opened in 1895 for commercial purposes; 
it connected Kiel, in the southeastern part of the German province 
of Schleswig-Holstein, on the Baltic, with the Elbe, where it empties 
into the North Sea. This canal was later enlarged in order to per- 
mit the largest warships to pass between the Baltic and the North 
Sea, and the enlarged canal was opened in June, 1914, thus doubling 
the value of the German navy. With this ready, Germany felt pre 
pared for war. 



15 

V. THE OUTBREAK OF THE GREAT WAR. 

The Results of the Sarajevo Assassination. — The im- 
mediate cause of the Great War was the assassination of 
the Austrian heir to the throne, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, 
and his wife on June 28, 1914, while on an official visit to 
Sarajevo, the capital of the Austrian province of Bosnia, 
the assassin, Gavrilo Princip, being a Bosnian youth of 
Slavic blood. Austria held Serbia responsible for this crime 
because she had permitted Pan-Serbist societies to agitate 
for the freeing of Bosnia from Austrian rule and because 
of the belief that the crime was planned and approved in 
Serbia. The Austrian note to the Serbian government 
reached Belgrade, the capital, on July 23d. It contained 
ten demands, among them being the demand that Serbia 
suppress all newspapers and societies "inciting to hatred" 
of Austria and that she receive Austrian officials to assist 
in this suppression. Serbia was allowed only forty-eight 
hours to reply to demands affecting her national independ- 
ence. Her acceptance of eight of the Austrian demands 
was ignored by Austria. Russia could not permit Serbia 
to be crushed as a nation and could not allow Austria to 
dominate in the Balkans; hence Europe saw that any war 
between Austria and Serbia would involve Russia and 
France. Sir Edward Grey, the British Secretary of State 
for Foreign Affairs, made desperate efforts to convene a 
conference at London of the ambassadors of the four "dis- 
interested" powers of France, Germany, Italy, and England, 
in order to adjust the difficulty between Austria and Russia. 
Germany and Austria refused to arbitrate the question and 
on July 28th, Austria formally declared war on Serbia. On 
July 29th, Germany rejected Grey's offer to accept any 
plan that Germany would arrange to prevent war between 
Austria and Russia ; and on this date, Germany asked Eng- 



16 

land to remain neutral in the war which she must enter as 
Austria's ally. Grey indignantly rejected this proposal of 
Bethmann-Hollweg, the German chancellor, on July 30th. 

On July 30th, Austria bombarded Belgrade, the capital of 
Serbia, and the mobilization of troops began in Russia. On 
July 31st, Germany sent Russia an ultimatum ordering that 
her mobilization cease; and the same day, she sent an ulti- 
matum to France, asking whether she would remain neutral. 
On August 1st, Germany declared war on Russia; on 
August 2d, Germany demanded that Belgium permit Ger- 
man troops to march through, thus violating its neutrality; 
on August 3d, Germany declared war on France ; on August 
4th, Germany invaded Belgium, and on that day, Great 
Britain, in consequence, declared war on Germany. 

Note 1. — Austria and Germany desired a war with Serbia, Aus- 
tria wanted it in order to become supreme in the Balkans, and Ger- 
many in order to promote the ' ' Mittel-Europa ' ' idea and to humiliate 
Eussia, as Serbia's protector. The German desire for war could be 
seen in the increase of the German army in 1913; in the enormous 
stock of munitions prepared; in the deepening of the Kiel Canal: 
in the great purchases of beds and hospital supplies in May, 1914; 
and in .the construction of strategic, not commercial, railroads lead- 
ing to her frontiers. The Potsdam conference of July 5, 1914, as 
described by Prince Lichnowsky, German ambassador to Great Brit- 
ain, and by Baron Wangeuheim, German ambassador to Turkey, con- 
vinced the German leaders that everything was ready for war, and 
that the murder of the Austrian heir gave a sufficient pretext. 

Note 2. — Prince Lichnowsky wrote a secret account for his family 
archives, which was later published. In 1914, he said: "A hint from 
Berlin would have been enough to make Count Berchtold (Austrian 
minister of foreign affairs) less satisfied with a diplomatic success 
and to cause his acquiescence in the Serbian reply. What happened? 
The hint was not given; on the contrary, we pressed for war. Sir 
pjdward (Grey) besought Germany to make a proposal of her own. 
We insisted upon war. ' ' 

Note 3. — Mobilization means the transformation of military and 
naval forces from a peace footing to a war footing. The telegraph 
flashes the news to every city and hamlet and the process moves 
quickly. The difficulty can be estimated from the fact that one army 
corps requires twenty-five fifty-car railroad trains to transport men, 
ammunition, artillery, rations, horses, etc. In Germany, the mobili- 
zation was done with great speed and skill. 



17 

Note 4. — Gavrilo Princip, the Bosnian youth who fired the shot at 
the Sarajevo assassination of the Austrian archduke on June 28, 1914, 
was tried and sentenced to twenty years in prison. He died May 1, 
1918, in an Austrian fortress. 

Note 5. — Germany expected England to keep out of the war be- 
cause of the threat of rebellion in Ulster against the Home Eule Act 
of 1914, because of the unrest in India, and because of its small 
army, characterized as ''contemptible" by the Kaiser. Sir Edward 
Grey, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, tried hard to prevent 
war. The Triple Entente did not require her to fight for either Eus- 
sia or France, and in a mere Balkan war she would not have inter- 
vened. Belgium on August 3d appealed to England for protection, 
and on August 4th England sent her ultimatum to Germany demand- 
ing that Belgium's neutrality be respected. At the interview of 
August 4th between Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg and the Brit- 
ish^'ambassador, the chancellor made a speech of twenty minutes, say- 
ing that ''just for a word, 'neutrality,' just for a scrap of paper," 
England was going to make war on Germany. In reality, while pro- 
tecting Belgium, England saw that she was defending herself, since 
her existence as a nation was at stake. 

j^ote 3. — The Great War saw many innovations devised by science. 
New means of transportiug troops and supplies were found in power- 
ful motor trucks. The great guns were a feature. German 42- 
centimeter (16% inches) mortars, or siege guns, fired shells weighing 
nearly a ton; they could readily smash steel and concrete fortifica- 
tions, and bombard towns twenty-two miles distant. Paris was sev- 
eral times bombarded by a gun with a range of seventy miles. The 
French "75's" were quick-fire cannon with a caliber of 75 milli- 
meters, or about three inches. Enormous quantities of high explosive 
shells fired by thousands of guns were used to destroy the barbed wire 
entanglements and the trenches. These trenches were vast in extent, 
and had underground refuge chambers of timber and concrete. By 
January, 1915, the six-hundred-mile battle line from the English 
Channel to Switzerland was fortified by every device possible. The 
machine gun, firing from four hundred to five hundred rifle bullets 
per minute, was the chief weapon. The famous tanks were armored 
motors, propelled by "caterpillar drive," and armed with machine 
guns and cannon. They were first used by the British in September, 
1916 ; and in sufficient numbers they could destroy any intrenched line 
by leveling the barbed wire, crushing in the trench, and bombarding 
the dugout. 

The flame-thrower was a German device which sent liquid fire into 
the foes' ranks, burning everything in range. Germany, too, first 
introduced the use of the deadly poison gas, thrown by trench mor- 
tars, against which the gas mask was a slight protection. 

One of the greatest developments of modern warfare was the air- 
plane ; it is used not only to drop bombs and explosives, but to serve 
as the eyes of the army, to direct artillery fire, and to observe the 
movements of the enemy. Two patrols of airplanes are used. The 



18 

lower one flies at a height of about 6,000 feet above the lines, while 
the upper patrol, at a height of 20,000 feet, protects the lower patrol 
from invaders. For raids on cities, the Germans at first used only 
Zeppelins, which could carry two and a half tons of explosives to a 
height of two miles. Against these and other planes, air-craft guns 
are used, which bring down machines at a height of 10,000 feet, A 
high-speed airplane may travel at the rate of one hundred and thirty 
or one hundred and forty miles an hour. At the beginning of the 
war, Germany controlled the air; but England soon gained suprem- 
acy there. As a protection against scouting by airplanes, the art of 
camouflage was highly developed in France. This branch of military 
strategy aims to deceive the enemy by disguising military equipment. 
Thus trenches and artillery were sometimes covered with trees and 
painted scenes in order to make them aftpear like a country land- 
scape to the scouting airplanes. 

The submarine was Germany's main reliance in her effort to con- 
quer England. Fulton's ''Nautilus," built for Napoleon in 1801, 
proved of little value. The ' ' Holland, ' ' invented by John P. Hol- 
land, was purchased by the United States Government in 1900. Ger- 
many made great improvements in this American invention. The 
Germans call the submarine the *'Unter See" (''below sea") boar, 
or U-boat. The submarine is made of a shell of steel about half an 
inch thick. It is propelled on the surface of the water by gasoline 
power; but when submerged, it moves by electricity. When the 
boat's electric power is used up, it must come to the surface in order 
to recharge its batteries. The periscope of the submarine is a " see- 
ing tube" extending from the boat above the surface of the water; 
by its mirrors and lenses the people on the submarine can see ap- 
proaching ships ' ' for several miles. ' ' The torpedo that the sub- 
marine discharges is about twenty-two feet long and twenty-one 
inches thick; the torpedo weighs about a ton, and when discharged 
goes through the water at the rate of forty miles an hour. Each 
torpedo, with its delicate mechanism and its load of three or four 
hundred pounds of explosives, costs about $6,000. 

The invention of the torpedo-boat destroyer ended the submarine 
menace, as the depth bombs fired by the destroyer could destroy the 
frail submarine. On all cruises, two circles of destroyers surround 
the battleships at a distance of ten miles, thus protecting the battle- 
ships from all harm. 

An invention of the British in 1918 was the "flying torpedoboat. " 
By this an airplane could discharge a torpedo, weighing about a ton. 
When the ' ' flying torpedoboat ' ' sighted an enemy ship, it would dive 
from the clouds at the rate of one hundred and fifty miles an hour, 
stopping when about fifty feet from the surface of the earth to dis- 
charge the torpedo at its enemy, and then rising swiftly to the clouds 
again. These new machines could be launched from the deck of ship, 
if necessary. 



19 

VI. THE WAR IN 1914 
The Invasion of Belgium. — The German plan of ac- 
tion was to crush France first, then Russia, and then Great 
Britain. France did not expect an attack through neutral 
Belgium; therefore, the Germans, in order to have the ad- 
vantage of attacking an unprepared frontier, sent five 
armies through Belgium and Luxemburg, with General von 
Moltke as chief of staff. Liege, in Belgium, just across the 
German frontier, was a town of 174,000 people. It had 
powerful fortifications, defended by General Leman and a 
garrison of 20,000 men. On August 4th, the Germans at- 
tacked Liege, and their immense 42-centimeter guns and 
the 12-inch howitzers soon destroyed the forts. Liege, 
after resisting four days, was captured on August 7th. 
Brussels was entered on August 20th; Namur, a fortified 
town of 32,000, also resisted the German advance, though 
captured on August 22d. The splendid bravery of the Bel- 
gians delayed the Germans ten days and gave France time 
to prepare. 

Note. — Louvain was a town of 42,000. Its university, founded in 
1426, had 2,300 students; its library was very valuaijle. General 
von Manteuffel ordered the burning of Louvain on August 26, 1914, 
because he believed the civil population had planned fin attack on the 
invading Germans. 

The Battle of the Marne. — The first British army of 
about 100,000 men, commanded by General Sir John French, 
reached Belgium early in August. After the battle of Mons- 
Charleroi (August 21st to 23d), both the British and the 
French armies, by orders of General Joffre, began their 
retreat on August 24th; on the retreat they fought two 
pitched battles, though outnumbered three to one. They 
marched one hundred and forty miles in tweh'e days, with- 
drawing to the Marne River, a stream about three hundred 
miles long which empties into the Seine two miles from 



20 

Paris. They thus abandoned to the Germans that valuable 
section of France from which came ninety per cent, of her 
iron ore and fifty per cent, of her coal, but they saved 
France by their dogged resistance. French government 
offices were now removed from Paris to Bordeaux, while the 
Germans under General von Kluck pressed on to within 
twenty miles of Paris. The opposing forces stretched from 
Paris to Verdun, a distance of one hundred and eighty miles. 
On September 5th, Jofire gave the order "to die rather than 
retreat;" and on September 6th, the battle of the Marne 
began. General Joffre aided by General Foch and General 
French fought this battle frona September 6th tO' September 
10th, and triumphed, saving France and Europe from Prus- 
sianism. 

Note. — Premier Lloyd-George said: "The finest body of troops in 
the world, short of guns, short of men, rolled back the invader until 
Paris was saved. Every man from cavalryman to cook fought with 
desperation. But of that gallant little army hardly a man was left. 
That old army was the army that gathered the spears of the Prussian 
legions to its breast, and, like the Swiss of old, ' Made way for liberty 
— and died'.'' 

The Kaiser alluding to the size of this first British army, called it 
the '* contemptible " little English army. The British people, proud 
of this army's gallant service, called them the '^old Contemptibles. " 

After the battle of the Marne, the Germans were com- 
pelled to retreat for about fifty miles, to the Aisne River, 
where they entrenched themselves; the pursuing Entente 
Allies failed in the battle of the Aisne (September 12th to 
17th) however, to break through the German lines. The 
fortified-trench system was extended, and by January, 1915, 
the line of fortified trenches reached from the English Chan- 
nel to Switzerland, a distance of six hundred miles. This 
long battle line remained practically stationary for almost 
three years. 

Note. — General Foch, one of the victors at the Marne, in Septem- 
ber, 1914, reported to General Joffre, the commander of the Ereneh 



21 

forces : ' ' My left has been rolled up ; my right has been driven in ; 
therefore I have ordered an advance along my centre. ' ' 

The First Battles in Flanders. — West Flanders, a 
province of Belgium touching the North Sea, has as its 
chief cities Ypres (e' pr), with 17,000 inhabitants; Ostend, 
with 42,000; and Bruges, with 53,000. It is very low and 
wet, requiring sea dykes to protect it from the ocean, and 
ditches to drain ofT the water. It was in this province of 
Flanders that much of the fighting between the British 
troops and the Germans occurred in the German drives 
toward the French ports on the English Channel, which 
began after Antwerp was captured on October 9th. At the 
Yser River, a small Belgian stream emptying into the North 
Sea, the Belgians fought the Germans in October, 1914, 
checking their drive. When the Belgians cut the dykes 
between Nieuport and Ypres, the German advance was hin- 
dered. At the first battle of Ypres, the British under Gen- 
eral French fought the Germans from October 17th to No- 
vember 15th, and what the Kaiser called the "contemptible 
little army" of Great Britain defeated the Prussian Guards 
and prevented the Germans from reaching Calais. By the 
end of November, 1914, this first battle of Flanders became 
a process of trench digging, with much weary waiting in the 
icy waters of the trenches. The German conquest of the 
Belgian coast was of value to them, as by it they secured 
Ostend and Zeebrugge, which they developed into power- 
ful submarine bases. 

Note 1,. — General Foeh met General French at two o'clock in the 
morning of November 1st, during the battle of Ypres, when it seemed 
advisable for the British to retreat. Foch said : ' * The Germans have 
sixteen corps. Very well. We have only ten, with yours. If you 
retire I shall remain. Remain! The British Army never drew back 
in its history. As for myself, I give you my word as a soldier that 
I will die rather than retreat. Give me yours!" Lord French 
stepped forward, and grasped Foch by the hand, and the battle went 
on. 



22 

Note 2. — In its occupation of Belgium and France, Germany fol- 
lowed the principle of ' ' schrecklichkeit " (terrorism), as taught by 
her war leaders. William II, was largely responsible for these dread- 
ful practices. In 1900, when addressing the German troops depart- 
ing for the Boxer War in China, the Kaiser said : ' ' No quarter will 
be given, no priFoners taken. . . . Just as the Huns a thousand 
years ago under the leaders-hip of Attila, gained a reputation in vir- 
tue of which they still live in historical tradition, so may the' name 
of Germany become known in such a manner in China that no China- 
man will ever again dare to look askance at a German, ' ' The Ger- 
man war-code required deeds of brutality and violence in order to 
intimidate the conquered people. Looting and burning of whole vil- 
lages was practiced ; hostages were seized in every town and executed 
if there was the least disorder; thousands of persons were killed, 
often with mutilation and torture; women and children were used as 
shields for advancing German troops in a number of cases; the poi- 
soning of wells and the destruction of trees in conquered territory 
were intended to make these regions of little subsequent value; heavy 
fines and exactions of money and material totalled a billion dollars in 
Belgium; tens of thousands of people were deportied from Belgium 
and northeastern France, the men to serve practically as slaves in 
German industries and the women ' ' reduced frequently to w^orse than 
slavery." Brand Whitlock, the United Spates minister to Belgium, 
said in 1917 of these horrible deportations that, coldly planned and 
deliberately executed as they were, they formed ' ' one of those deeds 
that make one despair of the future of the human race. ' ' 

Note 3. — A passage from the diary of Private Karl Scheufele, of a 
Bavarian regiment, will illustrate this policy of ' ' schrecklichkeit ' ' : 
'*In the night of August 18-19 (1914) the village of Saint Maurice 
was punished for having fired on German soldiers by being burned to 
the ground by the German troops. . , . The village was surrounded, 
men posted about a yard from one another, so that no one could get 
out. Then the Uhlans set fire to it, house by house. Neither man, 
woman nor child could escape; only the greater part of the livestock 
was carried otf, as that could be used. Any one who ventured to come 
out was shot down. All the inhabitants left in the vidage were burned 
with the houses." 

Note 4. — What happened at Tamines (Belgium) would have made 
the wife of Agamemnon cover her face The Germans en- 
tered the village at 5 P. M. on August 21, 1914. Immediately, the 

work of i^illage began Before the church by the river 

bank, they began the slaughter of over four hundred men. Finding 
rifles too slow, the officers ordered up a machine-gun, and turned it 

on the guiltless, shuddering crowd Seven of these poor 

souls were only wounded, and they were dispatched with thrusts and 
blows. Some feigned death, and lay all night with the dead, only 
to be buried alive with the other victims by the order of a doctor. 
Then, Avith a fiendish refinement of cruelty, the women and children, 
the widows and orphans — such as had escaped being burned alive or 



23 

suffocated in their burning homes— were forced, by the commanding 
officer, to shout, ' ' Long live Germany. ' ^— Sir Gilbert Parker. 

Note 5.— General von Bissing as the German military governor of 
Belgium from 1914 to 1916, was responsible for much of the cruelty 
there that so shocked the world. The merciless execution of Mi^s 
Edith Cavell in 1915 was mainly the work of von Bissing and Baron 
von der Lancken; the terrible deportations, numbering according to 
some authorities 300,000 Belgians, began in 1916 as part of von Bis- 
sing 's plan. He favored German retention of Belgium, hinting in one 
of his letters that King Albert ought to be dethroned and assassinated. 

Tannenberg and Lemberg.— On the eastern front in 
1914, Russia invaded Prussia; one army was defeated at 
the battle of Tannenberg (August 26th to September 1st) ; 
a second army was routed at the battle of the Mazurian 
Lakes (September 6th to 10th). The helpless Russians 
shrieked for mercy while being suffocated in the swamps 
and shot down, but no mercy was shown. By this means, 
East Prussia was cleared of the Russians, and the victorious 
General von Hindenburg became the idol of Germany. 

General Ruzsky invaded Galicia in the summer of 1914, 
with an army of 1,500,000 to oppose 1,000,000 Austrians. 
He overran most of the country, and captured Lemberg, 
the capital. Three offensives of German armies against 
Warsaw, the capital of Poland, were beaten off in the 
autumn of 1914. As a result of these victories, Serbia 
which had lost Belgrade, its capital, early in the war, was 
able by December, 1914, to expel the Austrian invaders from 
her territory. 

The Loss of German Colonies. — Japan declared war 
against Germany on August 23, 1914, because of her alliance 
with Great Britain and because of her resentment at Ger- 
man treatment in 1895. After a short struggle Japan cap- 
tured the German protectorate of Kiao-chau, in China, in 
November, 1914. In this year, Germany lost her posses- 
sions in Oceanica, these being captured by Australia and 



24 

Japan. Her colonies in Africa were captured gradually by- 
England. Togoland was taken in 1914; German Southwest 
Africa in 1915; Kamerun in 1916; while the conquest of 
German East Africa was completed in 1917. 

Note 1. — In 1897, a German fleet seized the land on both sides of 
Kiao-chau Bay, China, as alleged reparation for the murder of two 
German missionaries. Under a lease from China of ninety-nine years, 
the territory, amounting to about two hundred square miles, according 
to the Century ''Cyclopedia of Names," was made a German pro- 
tectorate in 1898. The port is Tsingtau, which the Germans fortified 
strongly. This was captured by Japan on November 7, 1914, after a 
siege lasting from the preceding August. 

Note 2. — From October to December, 1914, a rebellion under De 
Wet occurred in South Africa, but it was put down chiefly by loyal 
Boer troops. In December, 1914, the pro-Turkish khedive of Egypt 
was deposed; Egypt was made a British protectorate, under the rule 
of a native sultan. 

Note 3. — Turkey was in secret alliance with Germany from August 
4, 1914. Her unneutral acts in sheltering German warships and in 
bombarding Eussian ports on the Black Sea led the Entente Allies 
to declare war against her in November, 1914. The Eussians defeated 
Turkey in Asia Minor in January, 1915, and the English prevented 
their invasion of Egypt in February, 1915. 

The Work of the English Navy. — The British fleet 
was the greatest single factor in the final defeat of Germany. 
It had assembled for a naval review early in July, 1914; 
and Mr. Winston Spencer Churchill, First Lord of the Ad- 
miralty, on receiving the warning of Italy that war im- 
pended, fortunately kept the fleet intact. Its value to the 
world was inestimable. By it, in the early years of the 
war, German foreign commerce was destroyed and a block- 
ade of Germany established, which greatly hampered her 
work; by the protection of the British fleet, the United States, 
when almost defenceless, was saved from German conquest; 
by it in four years, 13,000,000 men were convoyed to the 
various battle fronts, and 25,000,000 tons of explosives; by 
it, the "highways of the deep" were kept open for British 
ships, which carried 130,000,000 tons of food and other sup- 



25 

plies for the use of the Entente Allies and the United States 
during the war. Its value lay not so much in fighting great 
naval battles, as in its ceaseless patrol of the seas, protecting 
British commerce, and transporting soldiers and supplies, 
while it stopped German commerce, preventing the impor- 
tation of wheat and other food stuffs, cotton, rubber, copper, 
and oil. If British sea control had failed even for a week, 
Britain would have starved. 

Of the allied forces that fought the German submarines 
from 1917, eighty per cent, were British. The British fleet 
in August, 1914, had a tonnage of 2,500,000 and a personnel 
of 145,000 officers and men; in August, 1918, it had a ton- 
nage (including the auxiliary fleet) of 8,000,000, and a per- 
sonnel of nearly 500,000 men, besides patrol vessels, mine- 
sweepers, etc., with another million engaged in civilian work 
connected with the navy. 

The naval operations during 1914 were very important, 
the German fleet being driven off the seas. On November 
1, 1914, Admiral Cradock's British squadron of four ships 
was defeated off the coast of Chile by a German fleet of 
five ships under Admiral Count von Spee, the British losing 
two ships. This defeat was avenged by the victory of De- 
cember 8, 1914, off the Falkland Islands, where Admiral 
Sir Frederick Sturdee defeated Admiral Count von Spee, 
sinking the "Scharnhorst," the "Gneisenau," and the "Leip- 



Note 1. — The blockade of the German coast by the British and 
French fleets had much to do with weakening Germany's e£Forts. 
Ammunition, guns, explosives, and materials for making them, such 
as copper and cotton, were originally declared contraband of war; 
and as such, these articles were liable to seizure by the British, ac- 
cording to international law, if found on neutral ships on the high 
seas or in the enemy's waters. On March 1, 1915, British Orders in 
Council were issued, designed to prevent commodities of any kind 
from reaching or leaving Germany. When it was found that Holland, 
Switzerland, Sweden, and Norway were buying wheat and other 



26 

articles to sell to Germany, the British blockade became even stricter, 
and these neutral countries were allowed to import only enough food 
for their own needs. 

Note 2. — The Pact of London, signed September 5, 1914, bound the 
Allies not to negotiate peace separately. 

Note 3. — The ''Emden" was a German raider, commanded by Cap- 
tain Karl von Miiller. She cruised in the Indian Ocean and the South 
Pacific for three months, destroying twenty-five merchant vessels. One 
of her most daring feats was her appearance in a harbor of Penang, 
in the Strait of Malacca, in October, 1914; disguised by an extra, 
false smokestack, and flying the Japanese flag, she steamed past the 
British forts and sank two ships, escaping unhurt. She was caught 
in November, 1914, at Cocos Island, soutliwest of Java, by the Aus- 
tralian cruiser ''Sydney." Here the ''Emden" was beached and 
burned, most of her crew being killed or captured; Captain von 
Miiller was taken prisoner to Melbourne. 

Note 4. — In September, 1914, while on patrol duty in the North 
Sea, the British battle cruisers ''Aboukir, '^ "Hogue," and "Cressy" 
were sunk by the German submarine ''U-9, " commanded by Captain 
Weddigen. The "Aboukir" was struck first, and the others were 
struck as they went to the rescue. The action, which lasted about an 
hour and a lialf, resulted in the drowning of 1,133 men. 

In the final surrender of the German fleet in 1918, Admiral Beatty 
was willing to exempt the ''U-9" from the surrender, in view of the 
})oat's history, but the German crew turned it over in order to get the 
bonus paid by Germany for taking the boats to England. 

Note 5. — The *'Goeben" and ''Breslau" were German battle 
cruisers in the Mediterranean. They escaped the pursuit of the Brit- 
ish and French ships and reached Constantinople in 1914, where they 
were given Turkish names. The ''Breslau" was sunk January 20, 
1918, in a battle at the entrance to the Dardanelles. 

Note 6. — Admiral Sims, of the IJnited States Navy, who commanded 
the American fleet abroad, said : ' * Some Americans seem to regard it 
as a miracle of their own navy that they got a million and a half 
troops over in a few months (in 1918), and protected them on the 
way. We didn't do that. Great Britain did. She brought over 
two-thirds of them and escorted a half. . . . About 5,000 anti- 
submarine craft were operating in European waters, only 3 per cent, 
of which were American craft." 



VII. THE WAR IN 1915 

Western Offensives. — From October, 1914, to Decem- 
ber, 1915, the intrenched, fortified battle line on the western 
front, stretching from the low, moist plain of Flanders to 
Switzerland, a distance of about six hundred miles, remained 



27 

practically stationary. The Allies vainly tried to break 
through the German line by their offensive in Champagne, 
in March and April, 1915. At Neuve Chapelle on March 
10, 1915, Sir John French at a cost of 13,000 British lives, 
had gained only a mile on a three-mile front. The second 
French offensive in Champagne, during September and Oc- 
tober, 1915, gained only fifteen and one-half square miles. 
On December 15th, General French was superseded by 
General Sir Douglas Haig as commander-in-chief of the 
British forces in France and Flanders. 

The Germans alsoi tried tO' break through the trench bar- 
riers in order to secure the cliannel, ports, fighting the 
second battle of Ypres (e'pr) , in West Flanders, from, April 
22d to April 26th. At tliis battle, tliey for the first time 
used clouds of chlorine gas, which suffocated the front line 
of the Allies. The Canadian troops heroically held the line 
at Ypres, and baffled the German advance. 

Note. — In 1915, the Belgians held eighteen miles of the western 
front, the British held thirty-one miles, and the French with 2,500^000 
men, held 543 miles. 

The Great German Drive in Galicia and Poland. — 
On the eastern front, the Germans were very successful in 
1915. The second Russian invasion of East Prussia was 
utterly defeated by General von Hindenburg around the 
Mazurian Lakes from February 4th to February 12th. In 
January, 1915, the Russians under General Brusilov were 
threatening to penetrate the Carpathian Mountains and to 
invade the plains of Hungary. Many battles were fought 
in the snow-bound mountain passes; and the fortress of 
Przemysl (pzhem'isl), in Galicia fifty miles west of Lem- 
berg, was captured in March, 1915, after the siege had lasted 
from November. In April, a combined Austrian and Ger- 
man army of 2,000,000 under General von Mackensen and 



28 

General von Hindenbiirg began a terrific drive in Austria 
and Russian Poland. In May, Mackensen won the decisive 
battle on the Dunajec River, in Galicia, forcing the Rus- 
sians to retire from their positions in the Carpathians. In 
June, he captured Przemysl and Lemberg, the capital of 
Galicia. He then advanced into Russian Poland, capturing 
Warsaw, the capital, in August. Poland, Lithuania, and 
Courland were conquered, and his victorious troops were 
halted only by the Pripet marshes and the swamps before 
Riga. As a result of this campaign, the Russians lost 1,200,- 
000 in killed and wounded, with 900,000 captured, together 
with 65,000 square miles of territory. Grand Duke Nicho- 
las was removed as commander-in-chief and sent to com- 
mand in the Caucasus. As a further result of this successful 
campaign, Bulgaria joined the Teutonic allies in October, 
1915; and only the landing on October 5th of an Anglo- 
French army under General Sarrail at Saloniki, at the head 
of the iEgean Sea, prevented King Constantine of Greece 
from following Bulgaria's example. 

The Conquest of Serbia. — Serbia, invaded twice with- 
out success in 1914, fell before the invasion of Austria, 
Germany, and Bulgaria, that began in October, 1915. By 
December, 1915, when Monastir was captured by the in- 
vaders, Serbian resistance was entirely overcome, and the 
oppressive rule of Austria and Bulgaria in desolated Ser- 
bia began. 

Italian Operations. — Italy had declared war on Austria, 
in May, 1915, with the object of recovering 'Ttalia Irre- 
denta," or the regions inhabited largely by Italian-speaking 
people in the Trentino. (the region around Trent) , in Trieste, 
and along the Adriatic coast of Dalmatia. No important 
results were achieved by Italy in 1915. 



29 

Note. — Italy did not declare war on Germany until August 27, 
1916. 

The Gallipoli Expedition. — The greatest Allied disap- 
pointment of the year 1915 was the failure of the Dar- 
danelles campaign. This strait, which is about forty-five 
miles long and averages three miles in width, separates the 
peninsula of Gallipoli (lep') from Asia Minor. A powerful 
British and French fleet began a bombardment of the outer 
forts of the Dardanelles on February 19, 1915; and on 
March 18th, the ships tried to pass this narrow passage, 
but were prevented by the fire of the Turkish forts, the 
invaders losing 2,000 men and three battleships. For the 
next month, British troops were landed on Gallipoli penin- 
sula, which is about forty-five miles long from neck to tip. 
General Sir Ian Hamilton being in command. The landing 
beach was called Anzac Cove, ''Anzac" being the initials 
of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Battles con- 
tinued till the end of December, with much suffering from 
water shortage. Hamilton recalled in October, gave place 
to General Monro. The expedition was finally abandoned 
early in January, 1916, after the British had sustained a 
loss of 114,000' casualties. If it had succeeded, Constanti- 
nople would have fallen, Russia could have been strength- 
ened, and the war shortened by separating the Teutonic 
allies. 

Naval Operations.— English naval efforts in 1914 had 
cleared the seas of German commerce. A minor naval 
battle was gained at Dogger Bank, in the North Sea, in 
January, 1915, when a German battle cruiser squadron, re- 
turning from an English coast raid, was punished by Ad- 
miral Beatty, one German ship being sunk and others dam- 
aged. 



30 

In order to meet the new submarine warfare of Germany, 
England required all neutral ships bound for the neutral 
countries of Holland, Norway, and Sweden to be inspected 
for munitions and other war materials at Kirkwall, in the 
Orkney Islands. In February, 1915, England declared that 
all foodstuffs sent to Germany would be regarded as .con- 
traband of war. In reply, the German government pro- 
claimed a "war zone" about the British Isles, this 
"blockade" beginning February 18, 1915. German sub- 
marines attacked neutral and enemy vessels entering these 
waters, waging what Premier Asquith called a campaign 
of "piracy and pillage." On March 1, 1915, British Orders 
in Council were issued, aiming at preventing commodities 
of any kind from reaching or leaving German}^ On May 
1, the German embassy published in New York papers a 
warning against sailing in the war zone on English or 
allied ships. On May 7, 1915, the British Cunard liner 
"Lusitania" was torpedoed by the German submarine U 39 
ten miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, near Queenstown, 
sinking "in twenty minutes." The list of killed numbered 
1,153, among whom were 114 Americans. This aroused 
horror throughout the allied world, though Germany cele- 
brated the event by casting a medal in honor of the vic- 
tory. On May 13th, President Wilson sent a note to Ger- 
many demanding that submarine attacks on passenger 
vessels cease; on June 9th and July 21st he sent other 
notes, reiterating his demands that Germany respect inter- 
national law. On September 1, 1915, Germany agreed to 
sink no more merchant ships without warning and without 
providing for the safety of the passengers. 

Note 1. — The belligerent nations beg-an to prepare for a long war. 
In May, 1915, Lloyd George was appointed British Minister of Muni- 
tions, and soon there were organized in England two thousand fac- 
tories and plants making ammunition of various kinds. Enormous 



31 

purchases of supplies were made abroad, and many munition plants 
were established in the United States. Germany received her sup- 
plies mainly from neutral countries like Holland, Denmark, Norway, 
Sweden, and Switzerland, but the rigid British blockade against goods 
destined for Germany produced a shortage there of foodstuffs, rub- 
ber, copper, and nickel. 

German Zeppelins and airplanes invaded England, bombing unfor- 
tified towns. From January, 1915, to October, 1917, German air- 
craft raided England thirty-four times, killing 865 and wounding 
more than 2,500. The object of these raids was to frighten England 
into submission, but they failed to accomplish their purpose. 

Note 2. — Miss Edith Cavell was a young English woman, in charge 
of a training school for nurses in Brussels. She was accused of as- 
sisting British, French, and Belgian soldiers that she had nursed, to 
escape from Belgium. She was arrested August 5, 1915; and after 
a trial, she was condemned on October 11th to be shot. The sentence 
was executed at 2 A. M. the next day, October 12th. When the Ger- 
man firing squad failed to kill her, the officer in charge put his re- 
volver to her ear and killed her. Brand Whitlock, the American 
minister to Belgium, endeavored to secure her pardon, but Germany 
refused any mercy. 

Note 3. — Several other matters of note in connection with the 
Great War occurred in the United States in 1915. On March 10, 
1915, the German auxiliary cruiser ''Prinz Eitel Friedrich" entered 
the harbor of Newport News, Virginia, and was interned there, having 
run the British blockade and carried on a destructive cruise of 30,000 
miles. On April 5, 1915, the United States demanded reparation 
from Germany for sinkiug the American ship, '' William P. Frye, " 
in February, 1915; and on April 9th, Germany agreed to compensate 
the owners. On June 9, 1915, William Jennings Bryan resigned as 
American Secretary of State, and was succeeded by Eobert Lansing. 
On December 4th, Henry Ford 's peace ship left New York witli 
numerous pacifists aboard, who planned to hold a European confer- 
ence and end the war. They landed at Copenhagen and then went 
to the Hague. On December 25th, Ford returned home, being ill. As 
a result of the Hague meeting, a permanent conference was elected, 
composed of Ford, Bryan, Jane Addams, and others, who were to use 
all efforts to end the war. After a few months' delay, this absurd 
attempt at peace ended. Madame Rosika Schurmmer was largely 
instrumental in organizing this affair. 

Note 4. — In 1915, the massacres of the Armenian Christian popu- 
lation in northeastern Asia were the most terrible in history. Whole 
villages were butchered or driven off to find new homes, or to die of 
exposure. Abdul Hamid, the Turkish sultan, said that the only way 
to suppress the Armenian question was to suppress the Armenians, 
and this was done savagely. German influence was supreme at Con- 
stantinople, but nothing was done to check the Turks' cruelty. Fully 
a million Armenians were deported, of whom at least half a million 
were massacred or starved to death. 



32 

VIII. THE WAR IN 1916 

The Battle of Verdun. — On the western front in 1916 
the two great events were the attack on Verdun and the 
Anglo-French drive on the Somme. Verdun is a city of 
about 21,000 inhabitants, on the Meuse River, in the north- 
eastern part of France. It was strongly fortified. On 
every hill top for five miles around the city there was a 
fort, making thirty-six forts and redoubts in all ; while un- 
derground passages, trenches, and defences made it one of 
the most strongly fortified gates of France. The German 
Crown Prince began a terrific bombardment of Verdun on 
February 21, 1916, while German gunners placed a "cur- 
tain of fire" in the rear of the French trenches in order to 
prevent the sending of reinforcements. On February 25th, 
after four days' battle, the Germans reached Fort du 
Douaumont, the first of the permanent forts of Verdun. 
All day they surged up the snow-covered slopes of the 
plateau of Douaumont, finally winning the fort when a 
heap of ruins. On that day, General Petain arrived at 
Verdun with reinforcements sent by General Joffre. For 
four more da^^s the battle raged about the fort and village 
of Douaumont, when a slight lull came. On March 2d, the 
attack was renewed at a new point, west of the Meuse 
River, the Germans reaching Le Mort Homme (Dead 
Man's Hill) on March 14th. They next attacked Hill 304, 
the key to Le Mort Homme, but in spite of fearful carnage 
the French continued to hold these two hills for weeks. On 
May 20th, sixty German batteries attacked Le Mort 
Homme, and on May 29th they repeated the attack, finally 
gaining the summit of Le Mort Homme, though the French 
still held the southern slopes of the hill. From May 31st, 
the battle raged for the possession of Fort de Vaux, but 
when this was captured on June 7th, the Germans had still 



1 



33 

only made a breach in the outer defenses of Verdun, From 
February to July, the Crown Prince's army had gained 
about one hundred and thirty square miles of French ter- 
ritory, with two ruined forts and forty ruined villages at a 
cost of 500,000 men. General Petain's message, "They 
shall not pass," and the French soldiers' battle cry, "Ne pas- 
serront pas," had been realized, and the road to Paris re- 
mained barred. 

Note. — In October, General Nivelle regained Fort Douaumont, 
Douaumont villige, and Fort de Vaux. In December, General Man- 
gin regained most of the land lost on the east bank of the Mouse. 

The Battle of the Somme. — The Anglo-French drive 
on the Somme began July 1, 1916, under the command of 
Marshal Joffre and General Sir Douglas Haig. The British 
army in France now numbered 1,500,000 men and the 
supply of ammunition was unlimited, because in 1916, 
Britain was making as many shells in four days as in the 
entire year 1914. The Somme River, a stream about one 
hundred and fifty miles long in northeastern France, emp- 
ties into the English Channel. The first attack followed 
a front of twenty miles along the river, the British aiming 
to get Bapaume, nine miles from their front, while the 
French desired to reach Peronne, about six miles from their 
front. Battles continued all through July, with a slight 
pause in August. The drive was continued in September, 
1916, when the British tanks appeared for the first time. 
These tanks were motor trucks encased in steel and supplied 
with machine guns. They moved on caterpillar treads, so 
that they could easily cross "no man's land" to the German 
trenches. On September 26th, the towns of Combles and 
Thiepval w^ere taken. When the drive ended in November, 
1916, only one hundred and twenty square miles of French 
territory had been regained at a cost of 675,000 British 



34 

and French soldiers. The drive, however, relieved Verdun 
and aided Russia in gaining its eastern victory. 

Russian Victories in the East. — Grand Duke Nicholas 
commanding the Russian forces in Armenia was very suc- 
cessful in 1916. With an army of 180,000, he routed the 
Turks, while the roads were blocked with snow and the 
temperature was 20° below zero. When the Russians 
planted their guns on the high peaks dominating Erzerum, 
the most strongly fortified city in Asiatic Turkey, the 
Turks abandoned it on February 16th, yielding with it 
most of Armenia. Trebizond, an important commercial city 
of Asia Minor on the Black Sea, was captured by the Rus- 
sians on April 17th. 

General Brusilov began a great Russian drive in June, 
1916, on a front extending from the Pripet marshes in Po- 
land to the borders of Bukowina, in the eastern part of 
Austria-Hungar>\ His army of more than a million men had 
been equipped with supplies sent by Japan over the Siberian 
Railroad, and by England by way of the White Sea. The 
Austrian ' line was considered impregnable, as it was forti- 
fied by five lines of trenches fifteen feet deep, by block- 
houses of concrete and steel, by barbed wire entanglements, 
and by nests of machine g-uns. In a few weeks, the southern 
army of Russians had conquered most of Bukowina, taking 
Czernowitz, its capital, on June 17th, and advancing into 
Galicia. The northern armies operated in Volhynia, a 
western province of Russia. The drive lasted ten weeks, 
ending August 12th; by it, the Russians captured 358,000 
men and relieved Italy. This success also induced Rumania 
to enter the war on the side of the Allies. 

The Conquest of Rumania. — The pro-German Russian 
prime minister, Stiirmer, treacherously induced Rumania 



1 



35 

to declare war on the Teutonic allies on August 27, 1916, 
by promising her an army of a million Russians. Instead, 
he sent her no support, but deliberately withheld supplies 
that France had sent her. Rumania invaded Transylvania, 
in southeastern Austria, hoping to rescue its kindred popu- 
lation from Austrian rule. The German commander, Gen- 
eral von Falkenhayn, soon drove them out of Transylvania, 
while General von Mackensen invaded Rumania. The 
country was soon conquered. Bucharest, the capital, de- 
spite its circle of thirty-six forts, was captured by von 
Mackensen on December 6th. The conquest of Rumania 
was of great value to Germany, as by it she secured the 
fertile grain fields of Wallachia together with the Rumanian 
oil lands. When Russia made peace with Germany in De- 
cember, 1917, powerless Rumania was forced to join in the 
armistice and to agree to the will of her German masters. 

Note.— When Eumania invaded Transylvania, she left undefended 
the Dobrudja, along the Bulgarian border. This section was readily 
overrun by von Mackensen in November and December, 1916. 

The British Defeat in Mesopotamia. — In 1915, Gen- 
eral Townshend led an expedition from India into Mesopo- 
tamia, his little force advancing up the Tigris River. On 
December 1, 1915, at Ctesiphon (tes'), twenty miles from 
Bagdad, he was compelled to retreat, returning to Kut-el- 
Amara. Here he was besieged by the Turks. For one hun- 
dred and forty-three days, he received no supplies except 
nine tons brought by airplane; and finally, on April 29, 
1916, compelled by hunger, he surrendered to the Turks, 
with his 13,000 men. The loyalty of the emir of Afghanis- 
tan and the justice of British rule in India prevented any 
"real injury to British prestige by the serious reverse. (See 

1917.) 

The Capture of Gorizia.— In May, 1916, the Austrians 
began an offensive from the Trentino, the region around 



36 

Trent. General Bmsilov's drive in Galicia saved the Ital- 
ians, who' in turn began an offensive by which on August 
9th they reached Gorizia, on the Isonzo River, twenty-two 
miles from Trieste. This advance continued until they came 
within thirteen miles of Trieste. 

Note. — The region at the head of the Adriatic Sea is drained by 
numerous mountain streams. The Isonzo, 75 miles long, empties into 
the Gulf of Trieste; the Tagliamento, 100 miles long, empties into 
the Adriatic; the Piave (pe a' ve), 130 miles long, empties into the 
Adriatic, twenty miles from Venice; the Adige, 230 miles long, 
empties into the Gulf of Venice. 

Naval Warfare. — The most important naval event of 
1916 was the battle of Jutland, or the battle of Skager 
Rack. On May 31, 1916-, Vice-Admiral Beatty, with the 
British battle-cruiser fleet, encountered the full German 
fleet under Vice-Admiral Von Hipjoer, which had been cruis- 
ing in the Skager Rack. The battle continued until night, 
when the German ships withdrew on the approach of the 
British dreadnoughts. The British lost fourteen ships ; the 
German loss, while not known definitely, was so heavy that 
they never dared to risk a second naval battle, the fleet 
remaining in the protected Kiel Harbor. The British lost 
five thousand sailors in this battle, while the Germans lost 
nearly four thousand. 

Note. — Jutland is the continental part of Denmark. It has the 
North Sea on the west, the Skager Eack on the north, and the Catte- 
gat on the east. 

On November 29, 1916, Admiral Beatty succeeded Sir John Jellicoe 
as commander-in-chief of the British Grand Fleet, Jellicoe becoming 
First Sea Lord. The head of the German navy was Admiral von 
Tirpitz, and later Admiral von Capelle. 

Increase of Submarine Warfare in 1916. — Among many 
other sinkings by German submarines may be noted the 
sinking without warning of the Channel passenger ship 
"Sussex," on March 24, 1916. The success of the German 



37 

ship "Moewe" was notable. Under Count zu Dohna- 
Schlodien, the "Moewe" passed the Allied patrols in the 
North Sea in November, 1916, and began her daring jour- 
ney. After sinking twenty-six ships, she returned to Ger- 
many in January, 1917, escorting two captured ships filled 
with prisoners. One of these was the British "Yarrowdale," 
with seventy-two American prisoners. As neutrals, their 
capture was unlawful, and they were finally released in 
March, 1917. 

Note 1. — Tlie extreme Irish Nationalists aimed at making Ireland a 
republic; and in April, 1916, an insurrection broke out in Dublin, 
led by the Sinn Fein (shin fane), the name meaning "We ourselves." 
The rebellion was suppressed in about a week, after some three hun- 
dred citizens of Dublin and five hundred British soldiers were killed. 
The president of the provisional government of the proposed repub- 
lic, Padraic Pearse, was executed by the British government. 

Sir Eoger Casement tried to assist the Sinn Fein revolt. He had 
been in Germany for some months, trying, it was said, to form an 
Irish brigade from Irish prisoners there, who were to be sent to Ire- 
land. He landed in Ireland on April 21, 1916, from a German sub- 
marine, and was at once arrested. He was found guilty of treason 
and was hanged in London, August 3, 1916. 

Lord Kitchener, the great British War Minister, by means of volun- 
teer enlistments, raised a great force called by the Germans "Kitch- 
ener 's mob, ' ' but these he soon drilled into fine soldiers. In Feb- 
ruary, 1916, the Military Service Act was passed by Parliament, pro- 
viding for the compulsory enlistment of every British male subject 
between the ages of eighteen and forty-one, if unmarried or a 
widower without children. On May 24, 1916, Parliament adopted a 
new Military Service Act, by which all men, married or single, between 
the ages of eighteen and forty-one were rendered liable to military 
service. 

It was a great blow to the nation when Kitchener died on June 5, 
1916; his ship, the "Hampshire," was torpedoed near the Orkney 
Islands, when about to leave for Russia on a secret mission. 

On July 27, 1916, after a courtmartial trial at Bruges, Belgium, 
the Germans shot Captain Fryatt, the brave English captain of the 
steamer "Brussels," for the crime of having attempted to ram a 
German submarine in March, 1915, when it was about to torpedo his 
ship. (See "United States War Cyclopedia.") 

In December, 1916, the Asquith ministry was overturned in Par- 
liament because of English dissatisfaction at the progress of the 
war; and David Lloyd-George became British Premier, serving 
through the war. 



38 

Note 2. — In June, 1916, the Grand Sherif of Mecca led a revolt 
against Turkish rule and captured Mecca. He later established the 
kingdom of Hejaz, along the Bed Sea, with Mecca as its capital. 
This new kingdom was officially recognized by the Entente Allies. 

Note 3. — General von Hindenburg superseded General von Falken- 
hayn as chief-of-staff on August 29, 1916, von Ludendorff becoming 
his quartermaster-general. 

On October 8, 1916, the German submarine U 53, after landing at 
Newport, Rhode Inland, put out to sea again and sank five merchant 
ships off Nantucket, leaving American warships to rescue the sur- 
vivors. 

The aged Franz Joseph I., Emperor of Austria, died on November 
21, 1916, and was succeeded by his grand uepliew, Karl I. 

Note 4.— Greece, in the southern part of the Balkan peninsula, was 
ruled in 1914 by Constantine I., who succeeded to the throne in 
March, 1913. His wife was Queen Sophia, a sister of Kaiser Wi1- 
helm II.; and her influence made Constantine pro-German, despite 
the desires of the people. In October, 1915, he dismissed his prime 
minister Eleutherios Venizelos. In September, 1916, Venizelos estab- 
lished a provisional government with Entente sympathies at Saloniki. 
In June, 1917, Constantine was forced to abdicate, and Venizelos re- 
turned to Athens as premier, under Alexander I. as king. Greece 
declared war on Germany on July 2, 1917. 

IX. THE WAR IN 1917 

Submarine Warfare. — On January 31, 1917, Count von 
Bernstorff, the German ambassador to the United States, 
announced that on February 1st, Germany would make 
"full employment of all the weapons which are at its dis- 
posal," and would prevent all navigation within the war 
zone around the British Isles by sinking all ships met there, 
whether enemy or neutral. Hundreds of thousands of tons 
of belligerent and neutral shipping were destroyed during 
the war by mines and submarines. From the outbreak of 
the. war to January 1, 1917, the destruction by Germany 
of merchant shipping amounted to 5,034,000 tons; during 
1917, the loss amounted to about 6,600,000 tons. In Feb- 
ruary, 1918, it was officially announced by England that 
14,120 non-combatant British subjects had been killed by 
German submarines. Admiral von Tirpitz, the head of the 



39 

German navy, relied on this weapon to prevent food ships 
from reaching England, which must import most of its 
food. The policy failed because of the conservation of 
food in England, because of the planting of greater areas 
in England with food crops, and because of the incompara- 
ble British navy, which destroyed many submarines by 
nets, by patrol boats, and later by depth bombs discharged 
by torpedo-boat destroyers. 

Note 1. — The depth bomb, or depth charge, is a kind of mine, 
fitted with a hydrostatic valve. As the depth charge sinks in the 
water, the pressure operates the valve, causing an explosion. 

Note 2.— On March 28, 1915, the British passenger steamer, the 
' ' Falaba, ' ' was sunk off the coast of South Wales ; the Americaii 
ship "Gushing" was attacked by a German aeroplane in the English 
Channel in April, 1915. For the "William P. Frye," sunk in Feb- 
ruary, 1915, Germany on April 9, 1915, agreed to compensate the 
owners. The American ship ' ' Gulflight ' ' was attacked off the Scilly 
Islands, southwest of England, May 1, 1915, by a German submarine. 
On August 19, 1915, the British liner "Arabic" was sunk on its voy- 
age to New York. On March 24, 1916, the French ship "Sussex," 
used for passenger traffic across the English Channel, was sunk by a 
German submarine. Wilson's repeated notes on the "Lusitania," 
the "Sussex," etc., had no effect on the German method of warfare. 

Note 3. — In July, 1916, a German submarine merchantman, the 
" Deutschland, " arrived at Baltimore, under Captain Koenig. This 
unarmed submarine was about three hundred feet long, and carried a 
cargo of eight hundred tons. In 1916, it twice crossed from Germany 
to the United States and back, each crossing taking from sixteen to 
twenty-two days. The Germans hoped by it to break the British 
blockade, but the destruction of the sister ship, the "Bremen," by 
the British, ended this hope. 

Note 4. — Count von Luxburg, the German Charge d' Affaires at 
Buenos Aires, used the Swedish legation to communicate with Berlin 
during the war. One message dated May 19, 1917, said that in view 
of a better Argentine feeling toward Germany, he recommended that 
certain Argentine steamers nearing Bordeaux be either spared or else 
sunk without leaving a trace behind ("Spurlos versenkt"). 

The Entrance of America into the War. — The United 
States submitted to many insults and wrongs before she 
finally declared war on Germany. The State Department 
showed that during the two years and two months of Amer- 
ican neutrality, two hundred and twenty-six American lives 



40 

had been lost from the illegal attacks of German submarines, 
although international law requires that merchant vessels 
not trying to escape cannot be sunk until provision is made 
for the safety of passengers and crew. The attacks on the 
'Talaba/' the ''Gushing," the ''Sussex," the "Arabic," the 
"Gulflight," etc., had all cost American lives, but the de- 
struction of the British liner "Lusitania" off Old Head of 
Kinsale, ten miles from Queenstown, on May 7, 1915, with 
its death list of nearly 1,200, horrified the nation more 
than any other event of the war. 

German intrigue, propaganda, and espionage formed an- 
other cause that drove us to war. By propaganda we mean 
either the spreading of a particular doctrine or the doctrine 
itself. As used here, it meant the advocacy of the German 
cause by lecturers and newspapers who were in German pay. 
Espionage, or spying, was carried on in every country by 
paid German spies, and America was no exception, every 
American move being reported to Berlin. Munition plants 
and ships were blown up, and labor strikes were arranged. 
Von Bernstorff left a fund of about $30,000,000 in various 
New York banks to carry on these criminal activities in a 
neutral country. In December, 1915, the United States 
asked the recall of Captain Karl Boy-Ed, the naval attache 
of the German embassy at Washington, and of Captain 
Franz von Papen, the German military attache, because of 
their probable share in issuing false passports, subsidizing 
certain American newspapers, and hampering the making 
and shipping of munitions. This von Papen thought Amer- 
ica was so easy to deceive that in a letter to his wife, in 
1915, he referred to us as "these idiotic Yankees." Dr. 
Bernard Dernberg, head of German propaganda in the 
United States, aroused so much protest by his defense of 
the sinking of the "Lusitania" that he voluntarily returned 



41 

to Germany. Dr. Constantine Dumba, the Austrian am- 
bassador to the United States, was recalled at the request 
of Robert Lansing, American Secretary of State, in Septem- 
ber, 1915, for fomenting riot and disorder in American in- 
dustries. This intolerable condition continued for more 
than two years. 

Note. — After Captain von Papen was expelled from the United 
States, he was stopped and searched at Falmouth, England, in Jan- 
uary, 1916. By his check book and other documents it was seen that 
he had paid out much money for German intrigue in the United 
States. 

In April, 1916, United States secret-service men raided the New 
York office of Wolf von Igel, the secretary of von Papen, and seized 
his papers. These proved a direct connection of the German embassy 
at Washington with the editors of certain American newspapers, as 
well as with numerous plotters, who bombed munition plants and 
ships. Count von Bernstorff, who was German ambassador here from 
1908 to 1917, was proved by these von Igel papers to have directed 
these German intrigues. They also showed that Captain von Rintelen, 
connected with the German government, had tried to bribe American 
legislators and labor leaders. Konig, an active German plotter, 
planned the destruction of the Welland Canal in Canada ; the United 
States government has in its possession a check for $150, made out 
to Konig and signed by von Papen, to pay a bomb maker to place 
bombs in the coal bunkers of ships leaving New York. The govern- 
ment "War Cyclopedia" says that in the von Igel papers a letter 
was found which George Sylvester Viereck, editor of the ''Father- 
land, ' ' had sent Privy Councilor Albert, the German agent, arranging 
for a monthly subsidy of $1,750. 

Mr. A. Bielaski, of the United States Department of Justice, ap- 
pearing before a Senate committee in 1918, showed that William E. 
Hearst, the newspaper magnate, and certain other prominent Ameri- 
cans were regarded in Germany as friendly to the German cause prior 
to the declaration of war by America. Hearst on February 24, 1917, 
cabled to his employee, William B. Hale, in Berlin: "1 cannot see 
why the century-old friendship of the United States and Germany 
cannot be maintained and perpetuated. ' ' 

A further cause of American anger was the discovery of 
the note from Dr. Zimmermann, the German Secretary for 
Foreign Affairs, to the German minister to Mexico. This 
note, dated January 19, 1917, instructed the Mexican minis- 
ter to offer the Mexican gOA^ernment New Mexico, Texas, 



42 

and Arizona if it would ally itself with Germany in the 
event of war with the United States. It further directed the 
minister to suggest that the Mexican president should urge 
Japan to join in attacking the United States. 

On January 31, 1917, Count von Bernstorff announced 
to the American Government that Germany would re- 
pudiate the pledge given America after the sinking of the 
"Sussex," and that from February 1, 1917, unrestricted sub- 
marine warfare would be waged. One insolent exception , 
was made to this by the promise to allow a safety lane to 
Falmouth, England, through which one American ship a 
week would be allowed to pass. On February 3, 1917, 
Count von Bernstorff was given his passports by our gov- 
ernment, and Mr. James W. Gerard, our ambassador to Ger- 
many, was directed to ask for his, thus ending diplomatic 
relations with Germany. On February 26th, President 
Wilson asked Congress to adopt a policy of ''armed neu- 
trality" by arming American merchant ships. With a few 
exceptions Congress was anxious to do this, but Congress- 
ional action was prevented by Senator La Follette, of Wis- 
consin, Senator Stone of Missouri, Senator Gronna of North 
Dakota, and nine other senators, whom the President called 
"a little group of wilful men." 

Note. — Congress adjourned on Maix-li 4, 1917, without action on the 
armed ship question; but on March 12th, the President issued orders 
to arm American merchant ships against submarines by using an old 
law which permitted armed resistance to pirates. 

Finally, on April 6, 1917, the United States declared war 
on Germany, only six senators and fifty members of the 
House of Representatives voting against the measure. The 
causes of this action may be summarized as the German 
intention of unrestricted submarine warfare on belligerent 
and neutral ships; the loss of American lives and ships by 



43 

this warfare; the destruction of American property by Ger- 
man intrigue; and the feeling that German autocracy, if 
unchecked, would endanger not only the Monroe doctrine, 
but even our national independence. 

Note 1. — President Wilson, in his message of April 2, 1917, urged 
Congress to declare war on Germany. In this message he said that 
' ' the world must be made safe for democracy. ' ' In concluding the 
speech, hcj said that the right was ''more precious than peace," and 
that to the task of fighting for democracy, we could ''dedicate our 
lives and our fortunes.'^ The final sentence of the stirring address 
was "God helping her (America), she can do no other." 

Note 2. — In his book, "My Four Years in Germany," James W. 
Gerard, the former American ambassador to Germany, said that in 
conversing with Dr. Zimmermann, then Germany's Minister of For- 
eign Affairs, regarding the submarine warfare, Zimmermann said: — 

' ' ' The United States does not dare to do anything against Germany, 
because we have 500,000 German reservists in America who will rise 
in arms against your government if your government should dare to 
take any action against Germany. ' As he said this he had worked 
himself up to a passion and repeatedly struck the table with his fist. 

"I told him that we had 501,000 lamp posts in America and that 
was where the German reservists would find themselves if they tried 
any uprising," 

Note 3. — General John Joseph Pershing was born in Missouri, in 
1860; he was graduated from the United States Military Academy 
at West Point, in 1886. He was in command of the American forces 
sent to Europe, reaching France with the first contingent in July, 
1917. 

Note 4. — War was declared by the United States on Austria-Hun- 
gar}'' on December 7, 1917. 

American War Measures. — The enormous task of rais- 
ing an army and equipping it occupied most of the year 
1917. Huge appropriations were passed by Congress, and 
four vast Liberty Loans were floated in 1917 and 1918 in 
order to secure needed funds. The Selective Draft Law 
was passed by Congress, and all men between the ages of 
twenty-one and thirty-one were required to register on June 
5, 1917. On September 5th, many of these newly drafted 
men arrived in the various cantonments. There were six- 
teen national army camps established at various points in 
the United States, and sixteen other divisional camps for 



44 

the training of the national guard, those nearest to Phila- 
delphia being Camp Meade, at Annapolis Junction, Mary- 
land; Camp Lee, at Petersburg, Virginia; and Camp Dix, 
at Wrightstown, New Jersey. The average cantonment 
was a newly built city of possibly 1,200 buildings to house 
40,000 men, with rifle ranges, parade grounds, etc. Sewers, 
an adequate water supply, and a lighting plant were in- 
stalled in each cantonment. 

Note. — The cantonments were all built very speedily. Thus, in 
June, 1917, Camp Lee, at Petersburg, was only a ''scrub growth of 
farm land. In sixty- three days, it was a city consisting of 1,600 
buildings, giving protection to 50,000 men." For sixteen of these 
cantonments 500,000,000 feet of lumber were needed and 4,000 miles 
of pipe for water mains and sewers. 

In addition to this, munition plants were constructed 
throughout the country, ship yards built, and aviation plants 
arranged. Laws were passed creating a United States Food 
Administration in order to conserve food, this department 
being headed by Mr. Herbert C. Hoover, former chairman 
of the American Commission for Belgian Relief. Wheat 
was a food essential in the Allied countries; and the pro- 
duction was terribly curtailed by war. In addition, the 
wheat crops of Australia, India, and Argentina were largely 
cut off from Europe by ship shortage. Hence America wa» 
the main source of supply left. America, under Hoover^s 
leadership, saved and shipped to Europe much wheat and 
a vast amount of meat; thus, from May 1, 1918, to No- 
vember 1, 1918, the United States supplied the Entente 
Allies with 141,000,000 bushels of wheat. 

Another national department was the United States Fuel 
Administration for the conservation of coal, with Dr. Harry 
Garfield as chairman. 

In December, 1917, by Act of Congress, all the railroads 
of the country were taken over by the government and 



45 

placed under the supervision of William McAdoo, Secretary 
of the Treasury. By this means, more than 260,000 miles of 
track and more than a million railroad men passed under 
government control. This enabled the government to get 
its war materials more quickly, while it prevented freight 
congestion. This control was to be temporary, ending at a 
fixed time after the termination of the war. 

While the new American army was being formed, a force 
was sent to France under the command of General John J. 
Pershing, the first contingent of about 12,000 men reaching 
France in July, 1917. By the end of the war, the American 
army abroad numbered 2,000,000 men, while the total 
American army numbered 3,664,000. The American navy 
was sent abroad promptly when war began, in order to assist 
the allied navies, Rear-Admiral Sims being in charge of 
these American forces. These naval forces upheld the honor 
of the nation abroad by their splendid work. 

Note 1. — In his final report as American commander in France, 
General Pershing, in speaking of his soldiers, said: ''When I think 
of their heroism, their patience under hardships, their unflinching 
spirit of offensive action, I am filled with emotion which I am unable 
to express. Their deeds are immortal, and they have earned the eter- 
nal gratitude of their country.^' 

Note 2. — The American army abroad depended largely on France 
to supply the large guns, only one hundred and nine of these guns ar- 
riving from the United States during the war. France also supplied 
2,676 airplanes, the American supply amounting only to 1,379, despite 
the Congressional appropriation of nearly $700,000,000 for aviation 
purposes. 

Note 3. — The British war mission to the United States arrived April 
21, 1917, headed by Arthur Balfour, Secretary of State for Foreign 
Affairs; the French mission, headed by Marshal Joffre, arrived April 
24, 1917. 

Note 4. — American ship-building made great progress in 1917-1918. 
The work was under the direction of the United States Shipping 
Board, with Edward N. Hurley as chairman. The Emergency Fleet 
Co]»poration built the ships, and ship yards were opened in many 
places. The most famous of these yards was built at Hog Island, 
Philadelphia. Before October, 1917, Hog Island was a swampy tract 
of 846 acres, lying a few miles below Philadelphia. By infinite labor 



46 

and the expenditure of nearly $60,000,000, a great ship yard was built 
here, with eighty miles of railroad track, an immense water system, 
a vast electric power plant, two hundred and fifty buildings, and fifty 
shipways. The National Goverunient furnished the money for these 
yards and ships, the corporations in charge receiving a fixed percent- 
age of the total amount of money spent. Fabricated ships were the 
chief product ; for these ships, the various parts were made at machine 
shops and steel mills throughout the country, and then sent to the 
ship yards to be put together. One of the greatest feats was the 
building at Camden, New Jersey, in twenty-seven days, of the ''Tuck- 
ahoe, " which, after ten more days for fitting out, was loaded with 
coal at Baltimore, just forty days after its keel was laid. On July 
4, 1918, ninety-five steel, wooden, and concrete ships were launched in 
America; and work was going on in one hundred and thirty-two ship 
yards along the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, and the 
Great Lakes. The output of some of the yards was most disappoint- 
ing. Thus Hog Island by the end of December,, 1018, had launched 
only twelve ships. 

Note 5. — Cuba and Panama declared war on Germany in April, 
1917; Greece, with Constantine deposed, joined tlie Entente Allies, 
declaring war on Germany in July, 1917; Siam, on July 22, 1917; 
Liberia and China, in August, 1917; Brazil, October 26, 1917. In 
1918, Costa Rica, Guacemala, Haiti, Honduras, and Nicai-agua de- 
clared war on Germany. Arranged in alphabetical order, the twenty- 
three nations at war with Germany were: Belgium, Brazil, China, 
Costa Rica, Cuba, France, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, 
Honduras, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Panama, 
Portugal, Rumania, Russia, Serbia, Siam, and the United States. 

In the case of Belgium, France, Portugal, Rumania, and Russia, 
the declaration of war was first made by Germany; in all other cases, 
an Entente power made the first declaration. 

England declared war on Austria-Hungary on August 13, 1914; 
on Turkey, November 5, 1914; on Bulgaria, October 15, .1915. The 
United States declared war on Austria on December 7, 1917; it did 
not declare war on Turkey or Bulgaria. 

Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Santo Domingo, and Uruguay severed 
diplomatic relations with Germany in 1917, but did not declare war. 

The Western Front in 1917.— On March 17, 1917, the 
British captured the towns of Bapaume and Peronne. The 
Germans then withdrew to a new position of great strength 
along a front of about 60 miles, called the Hindenburg line. 
At the northern end of the line was Vimy Ridge; at the 
southern, was the St. Gobain Plateau. The trenches were 
defended by barbed wire entanglements and machine guns; 



47 

by dugouts large enough to hide a regiment; and by a con- 
tinuous succession of concrete redoubts called "pill boxes" 
by the British soldiers. The "pill boxes" were erected in 
shell holes, and were armed by machine guns. These for- 
midable German field fortifications were sometimes several 
miles deep. By their withdrawal, the Entente Allies re- 
gained about 1,000 square miles of French territory, together 
with about four hundred towns and villages. In their with- 
drawal, however, the Germans ravaged the country, tearing 
up fruit and shade trees, poisoning wells and streams, and 
burning many villages. To rebuild the roads and bridges 
here cost the British and French engineering sections enor- 
mous labor. 

The battle of Arras was fought from April 9 to June 1, 
1917. Vimy Ridge was seized April 9th by the Canadians, 
and later the towns of Vimy and Ancre were taken. The 
Germans resisted furiously, one windmill at Gavrelle, for 
example, changing ownership eight times during the month. 
By June, the battle became a deadlock, with Vimy Ridge 
as the chief Entente gain. 

The battle of the Aisne was fought from April to Novem- 
ber, 1917. The Aisne River has steep bluffs, along which 
runs the famous highway, Chemin des Dames. The French 
attacked the Hindenburg line here from Soissons to Rheims, 
but gained only forty square miles by their long struggle. 
The attack on Messines Ridge occurred in June, 1917. 
For over fifteen months, British sappers had been digging 
under the low range of Flanders hills, called Messines 
Ridge, placing nineteen mines there. On June 7, 1917, the 
mines were fired electrically, and a million pounds of high 
explosives were set off by the British. When this blew the 
tops of the hills off, the British rushed in, capturing ten 
miles of front trenches with 7,000 prisoners. In retaliation, 



48 

the Germans began a heavy offensive, capturing all the 
British positions and troops east of the Yser River. 

The terrific battle of Flanders was fought from July to 
December, 1917. The British and French on July 31, 1917, 
began an offensive which lasted till winter compelled a halt. 
The ground from heavy rains was a sea of mud in July, the 
troops being often up to their knees in it, with piled sand 
bags as the only trenches. A great artillery duel of three 
weeks opened this battle of Flanders. The fighting was in- 
terrupted for weeks at a time by torrential rains. By Octo- 
ber, the Entente Allies had gained only a part of Passchen- 
daele Ridge, though they strengthened their position at 
Ypres, thus protecting Calais better. 

The battle of Cambrai was fought in November and De- 
cember, 1917. Cambrai, a town of 27,000, was part of the 
Hindenburg line; and near the town, the British began 
their drive. The Hindenburg line was penetrated to a 
depth of several miles on a front of twenty miles. General 
Byng, the British commander, used a large number of tanks 
in this battle. The Germans, after a week's delay, made 
a counter attack, regaining half the territory that Byng had 
captured. In this attack, they surprised a number of 
American engineers, constructing a railway behind the Brit- 
ish lines. They seized the rifles of some fallen British, and 
defended themselves from the Germans, though with a 
considerable loss. 

Note. — By December 3, 1917, German East Africa was completely 
conquered by the British. Former Boer leaders, Generals Smuts and 
Botha, with Boer followers, were largely instrumental in the British 
conquest of German Africa. 

The Italian Disaster at Caporetto. — In May, General 
Cadorna had begun an offensive that ultimately brought the 
Italians within eleven miles of Trieste. The Russian revo- 
lution of March, 1917, released large bodies of German and 



49 

Austrian troops from service on the eastern front, and these 
were used as part of a great Austro-German force sent to 
invade Italy in October, 1917. They soon crossed the 
Isonzo River. Near Caporetto, in northern Italy, the in- 
vading troops fraternized with the Italians for weeks, and 
destroyed their morale by showing lying statements in news- 
papers of riots in Italian cities, and by instilling the idea 
that the war would end if the soldiers refused to fire. The 
Italian soldiers were also weakened by a shortage of food. 
Under these favorable conditions, the Austro-German drive 
was continued, and the great Italian retreat began. By 
November 2d, they were driven across the Tagliamento 
River. On November 9th, General Cadorna was super- 
seded as Italian commander-in-chief by General Armando 
Diaz. When the Italians reached the Piave River, their 
line stood firm. 

The mouth of the Piave River is about twenty miles from 
Venice. This section is low and must be protected by dikes. 
When Venice was threatened by the Austro-German forces, 
the dikes were cut, and the water served to check the drive. 
The shallow lagoons and islands of the flooded region were 
mined and protected by armed motor boats or by British 
monitors, carrying cannons. The French and British aided 
in this work; and finally, in January, 1918, there was no 
further danger from this invasion. The Italian loss was 
terrible, however, amounting to 2,500 guns and 280,000 men. 
Besides, nearly all the conquests of the previous months were 
lost. 

Note 1. — On December 9, 1917, Lieutenant Rizzo with a small com- 
pany in two motor boats, blew up by torpedoes two Austrian battle- 
ships, the ' ' Wien ' ' and the ' ' Monarch, ' ' in the harbor of Trieste, the 
daring sailors escaping in safety. 

Note 2. — On July 14, 1917, Bethmann-Hollweg was succeeded as 
German chancellor by Dr. Georg Michaelis, ''the chancellor of a 



50 

hundred days." On October 30, 1917, Michaelis was succeeded as 
chancellor by Count von Hertling. 

Note 3. — On December 26, 1917, Yice-Admiral Sir Rosslyn Wemyss 
was appointed First Sea Lord of the British Admiralty, succeeding 
Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. 

British Victories in the East. — General Townshend, 
with a small British force, had been captured at Kut-el- 
Amara in April, 1916, after enduring a siege by the Turks 
for one hundred and forty-three days. Early in 1917, Gen- 
eral Maude began a new British campaign in Mesopotamia. 
He compelled the Turks to abandon Kut-el-Amara in Feb- 
ruary, 1917, and then advanced up the Tigris. On March 
11, 1917, the British captured the city of Bagdad on the 
Tigris, when the summer heat halted further advance. 

Early in the war, in November, 1914, the Turks had 
marched an army from Palestine against Egypt and the 
Suez Canal; though repelled, they renewed their attack in 
1915, with another defeat. In order to prevent further 
Turkish-German attacks, the conquest of Palestine, their 
base, was necessary. A long delay ensued, since it was 
necessary to build a railway from Cairo into Palestine to 
bring supplies and to pipe water across the desert as the 
British advanced. On December 21, 1916, the British oc- 
cupied El Arish in the Sinai Peninsula, the border land be- 
tween Egypt and Palestine. On March 27, 1917, the British 
defeated the Turks near Gaza, in Palestine. Beersheba was 
captured on October 31, 1917, and Gaza was secured a week 
later. Jaffa, on the Mediterranean, the seaport of Jerusa- 
lem, was taken later in November. General Allenby con- 
tinued his victorious advance through Palestine; and finally 
on December 9, 1917, he compelled the Turks to surrender 
Jerusalem. This triumph of British arms restored British 
prestige in the East, strengthening her hold in Egypt and 
India. 



51 

Note. — Jerusalem is a sacred city to the Jews of the world, to 
Moslems, and to Christians. Wilhelm II. visited Palestine in 189S, 
in pursuance of his plan of securing Turkish friendship in order to 
be able to build his Berlin-Bagdad railway, designed as a blow at 
the British control of India. On this trip, he visited Jerusalem ; and 
in order to form a stately en'^rance way for this vain monarch, a part 
of the walls of the city was torn down. General Allenby, the con- 
queror of Jerusalem, ended seven centuries of Turkish rule there; 
when he entered the city in 1917, he walked bareheaded, following 
the road that led through the old, plain gateway of the people. 

The Revolution in Russia. — A revolutionary movement 
began in Russia in 1905. A procession of striking laborers, 
led by a priest named Gapon, while on the way to present 
a petition to the czar, was fired on by troops, the day of 
this bloodshed being called "Red Sunday." In order to 
check the growing discontent, the czar provided for a assem- 
bly, or Duma, to meet in the capital and counsel him in 
making laws. The first Duma in 1906 and the second Duma 
in 1907 were of little value, and the government remained 
an autocracy. In 1916, the fourth Duma passed a resolu- 
tion declaring that ''dark forces" ¥/ere betraying Russia's 
interests, referring to the pro-German czarina and to the in- 
fluence exercised over her by the monk Rasputin, who was 
murdered later in the year. The czar, under pressure of 
the Duma, finally dismissed the pro-German premier, 
Stiirmer. The revolution of March, 1917, overthrew the 
czar, and forced his abdication on March 15th. The Duma 
planned to carry on the government with Prince Lvoff as 
premier until an assembly could be elected to act. A small 
bddy of Socialists known as the Council of Workmen fra- 
ternized with the garrison at Petrograd, and the organization 
changed its name to the Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' 
Delegates. Alexander Kerensky, a member of this council, 
became War Minister in the Lvoff ministry. He at once 
proceeded with extreme foJly to abolish all discipline in the 
army, 'advising the soldiers to shoot their officers, if the 



52 

officers refused to obey them. The Duma soon became a 
shadow, while the weak Kerensky became premier on July 
20, 1917. He was overthrown in November by the extreme 
Socialists, the Bolsheviki, led by Nicolai Levine and Leon 
Trotzky. These two men, according to documents issued 
by the Committee on Public Information of the United 
States Government, were in the pay of Germany and under 
German control. Lenine as Russian premier and Trotzky 
as Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, negotiated an 
armistice with Germany in December, 1917. At Brest- 
Litovsk, a town in the western German-controlled part of 
Russia, a treaty was then made with Germany, by which 
Russia definitely withdrew from the war. It was ratified 
by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets at Moscow, on 
March 14, 1918. By this infamous treaty, Russia lost the 
Baltic provinces of Esthonia, Livonia, Courland, and Lith- 
uania, together with Poland, Finland, and Ukrainia. The 
Germans planned to make Poland and Finland monarchies 
under German kings; Ukrainia became a republic under 
German control. According to the Russian Commissioner 
of Commerce, by the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Russia lost 
300,000 square miles of territory, with 56,000,000 inhabi- 
tants, nearly a third of Russia's entire population; by it 
she lost 73% of her iron and 89% of her coal. 

The Bolsheviki still (1918) retain control of Russia. 
They are the political descendants of the old Nihilists ; and 
they fully accept the old Nihilist motto, 'The triumph of 
creation is destruction." Bolshevism, in brief, may be de- 
fined as the "tyranny of the proletariat," or the lowest, most 
ignorant class in the state. Soviet rule is a feature of the 
government, a Russian soviet being the executive commit- 
tee of an organization, whether workmen, soldiers, or sail- 
ors. Any such group under Bolsheviki rule can form a 



53 

union and elect its soviet which sends delegates to the soviet 
of the various Soviets. The combined all-Russian soviet of 
workmen's, soldiers', sailors', and peasants' delegates elected 
a board of officials, which to-day (1918) is the real govern- 
ment of Russia. 

Note 1. — Ukrainia, in southwestern Eussia, bordered on the Black 
Sea at the south, and on Austria and Eumania at the west. Its cap- 
ital is Kiev, a city with a population of about 300,000. The Eada, or 
National Assembly, meets at Kiev. The Ukrainians, or Little Eus- 
sians, are of the same Slavic race as the Euthenians of Galicia. 

Note 2. — The population of European Eussia, including Poland, is 
about 130,000,000, of whom only about 20,000,000 live in cities and 
towns. The vast majority of the people live in villages of log huts, 
averaging twenty families to the village. These villagers are nearly 
all illiterate, and live by primitive farming of their communal lands. 

Under Bolsheviki rule, a reign of terror prevailed (in 1918) in the 
cities of Eussia, with imprisonment, confiscation, and execution by 
shooting on a huge scale. Famine was widespread. Thus in Petro- 
grad, in 1918, flour sold at fifty rubles a kilogram (2.2 pounds), and 
herrings, the chief food obtainable, cost five rubles each. (A ruble 
in peace times was worth fifty cents; in 1918, it was worth about 
eighteen cents). The population of Petrograd sank from 2,000,000 
in 1914 to less than 1,000,000 in 1918. In March, 1918, Moscow was 
made the seat of the Bolsheviki government, instead of Petrograd. 

Trotzky is (1918) more powerful than the other two members of 
the Bolsheviki triumvirate, Lenine and Zinovieff. He lives in luxury 
in Moscow, guarded by thousands of Chinese and Lettish soldiers. 
When he travels he uses the magnificent private car of the dethroned 
czar, his special train with its two engines being guarded by machine 
guns. His army is recruited steadily; hunger drives the Eussians 
into the ranks, as most of the food is reserved for the Bolsheviki 
leaders to dispose of. ' ' Furniture has been nationalized by a decree 
of Trotzky," and may be seized at will by the government. In all 
the schools, ''atheism courses are taught, even to the youngest chil- 
dren, and open war is declared on all forms of religion." The only 
safeguard against arrest is to secure a passport proving that the holder 
is a manual worker. The prisons are crowded. One infamous court 
meets in a building on a street called the Garochovaia, where the chief 
judge is a fat Jewess, who has condemned hundreds to death. On the 
western border of Eussia, Trotzky has organized bands of soldiers 
known as ''Partisan Eegiments;" these fiends beat in the teeth of 
their prisoners, or break their limbs with hammers, or brand their 
naked shoulders with a semblance of epaulettes to denote official rank, 
while in other cases they hang them head downward to trees or flay 
them alive. 



54 

In 1918, Bessarabia, Bokhara, the Crimea, Armenia, Siberia, et(?., 
broke away from Kussia, and civil war with political chaos marked 
the year. An All-Eussian government opposed to the Bolsheviki was 
established at Omsk, Siberia, of which Admiral Alexander Kolchak 
was made dictator in November, 1918, after various changes. 

Note 3. — Nicholas II., the last of the Romanoff dynasty, was sent 
with his family to Tobolsk, in Siberia, shortly after his abdication. 
He lived there for some months in a private house, under guard. 
Later, fearing a plot to release him, the Bolsheviki government sent 
him to the town of Ekaterinburg, in the Ural Mountains. According 
to the account of a man servant of the royal family, they were all 
locked in one room during the last weeks of their imprisonment, with 
a sentry of the Red Guard in the room day and night. The family 
was exposed to gross insult, and death was a relief. They were exe- 
cuted by orders of the Ural Regional Council on the night of July 
16, 1918. The prisoners were placed against a wall of the prison 
cellar and shot, the czar holding his son in his arms. This report has 
not been officially confirmed. 



X. THE WAR IN 1918 

The Last German Offensive. — The "drive" in 1918 was 
the fiercest of the war, its object being to break the allied 
line before the American army arrived in force. Fully four 
million men were ultimately engaged in this most terrible 
battle of history. The first phase of the drive, or the battle 
of Picardy, began on March 21, 1918, the main blow falling 
on the British, whom the Germans thought to conquer be- 
fore attacking the French. The best German troops had 
been brought from Russia, and everything was staked on 
this final effort to conquer. The Fifth British army, under 
General Gough, fought with splendid courage, but it was 
outnumbered and utterly defeated. On March 25th, 
Peronne and Bapaume were recaptured by the Germans. 
On March 27th, Lloyd-George appealed to America for help 
at this crisis of the war. Finally, with French aid, the first 
phase of the drive w^as checked by April 1st, with Amiens 
saved, but with a thousand square miles of French territory 
captured by the Germans. 



55 

On April 9, 1918, the second phase of the great German 
drive began farther north, near Ypres. Here the battle 
was furious. On April 12th, General Sir Douglas Haig is- 
sued to the British armies his famous Order of the Day, 
saying: "Every position must be held to the last man. 
There must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall 
and believing in the justice of our cause, each of us must 
fight to the end. The safety of our homes and the freedom 
of mankind depend alike on the conduct of each one of us 
at this last moment." On April 16th, portions of Messines 
Ridge and Passchendaele Ridge were captured by the Ger- 
mans; these positions had been gained by the British in 
1917 at terrific cost of life. For four weeks the British, 
with about 1,000,000 men, had stood the desperate attacks 
of 1,250,000 Germans, but by April 21st the drive in this 
section ended with Calais and other Channel ports saved 
at a cost in killed and wounded of 250,000 British and 
75,000 French. 

Note.— This German drive led to the appointment of General Ferdi- 
nand Foch as commander-in-chief of the Entente Allies' forces, the 
appointment being officially announced on April 14, 1918. 

The third phase of the great German drive began on 
May 27, 1918. The German movement was southward in 
the Aisne region held by the French, between Soissons and 
Rheims; hence this was called the third battle of the Aisne. 
The Germans surprised the French, and took Soissons; they 
then pushed on for thirty miles toward Paris, until they 
were checked at the Marne River by French reserves. At 
Chateau Thierry, a town on the Marne River, fifty miles 
from Paris, General Foch sent in American marines; and 
with their help, the drive was checked by June 6th. 

Note. — On May 28, 1918, the Americans took the village of Can- 
tigny, in Picardy, and captured about two hundred German prisoners. 



56 

On June 9th, the fourth phase of the German drive began, 
the objective being Paris by the roads descending from the 
north. 

The fighting by the American marines in Belleau Wood, 
northwest of Chateau Thierry, on June 11th, was brilliant, 
helping to block the steady German advance on Paris. The 
French government, in recognition of the marines' bravery, 
renamed the place the Wood of the Marine Brigade. By 
June 14th, the German drive was definitely halted by the 
French. 

On July 15th, after a lull of a month, the Germans re- 
newed their drive on Paris on a front centering at Rheims, 
while in the American section, around Chateau Thierry, a 
counter attack forced 15,000 Germans back across the 
Marne. 

Note. — One of the most daring naval feats of the war was the 
blocking of Zeebrugge harbor, in April, 1918, by Captain Carpenter. 
The cities of Ostend and Zeebrugge in Belgium, on the North Sea, 
were German submarine bases during the war. Captain Alfred Car- 
penter, in command of the British cruiser ' ' Vindictive, ' ' took three 
concrete-laden ships into the harbor of Zeebrugge, and by sinking 
them blocked the channel, thus keeping tw^enty-three German destroy- 
ers and twelve German submarines locked up and unable to get out 
to the ocean during the rest of the war. 

The Conquest of Bulgaria. — The French commander 
of the Army of the Orient, in Macedonia, General Franchet 
d' Esperey, driving north from Saloniki with French and 
Serbian troops, advanced through the Vardar Valley; and 
by the battle of Cerna-Vardar in September, 1918, they 
divided the Bulgarian armies in the east from the Bulgarian 
and Austrian army in the west. Ten days later, as no re- 
treat was possible, an armistice was signed, and the Bul- 
garian army of 300,000 was eliminated from the war. Bul- 
garia surrendered to General d' Esperey on September 29, 
1918, agreeing to evacuate Greek and Serbian territory and 



57 



to demobilize her forces. This began the break-up of the 
Teutonic alliances. Czar Ferdinand abdicated as ruler of 
Bulgaria on October 4, 1918, and was succeeded by his son 
Boris. 

The War in Palestine. — General Sir Edmund Allenby 
continued his victories at the end of the summer heat. The 
battle of Samaria was fought in September, 1918. Allenby 
attacked the Turkish positions from the Jordan River to 
the Mediterranean in this battle of Samaria ; and with his 
victory, the Turkish Empire fell. When Aleppo was taken 
in October, the Mesopotamian forces of Turkey were 
isolated, and Turkish resistance became hopeless. General 
Allenby by his victories decided the fate of Syria, Pales- 
tine, and Mesopotamia. On October 31, 1918, Turkey with- 
drew from the war, accepting the Allies' armistice terms, and 
agreeing to their occupation of Constantinople. 

Note.— Jerusalem surrendered to Allenby in December, 1917. Jeri- 
cho, in the valley of the Jordan, was captured in February, 1918. 
After Bethlehem was taken by the British, they appeared in the plain 
of Esdraelon, which separates Galilee from Samaria, the scene of the 
battle of Armageddon referred to in the Apocalypse (Eevelation 16: 
]6). After gaining the battle of Samaria, the capture of Aleppo, the 
great Turco-German base, was decisive, and made resistance impos- 
sible. 

The Great Italian Victory.— On June 15th, the Aus- 
trians with more than a million men began an offensive 
against the Italian lines along the Piave River, from the 
Asiago Plateau to the Adriatic Sea. They massed most of 
their attack at Asiago, Monte Grappa, and Montebello. 
They succeeded in crossing the Piave, but by June 23d, their 
offensive ended in a precipitate retreat across the Piave 
River, by which they lost 200,000 men, with all their recent 
territorial gains. General Diaz did not begin an offensive 
for several months after winning this battle of the Piave; 
but on October 24, 1918, he began the battle of Venetia, from 



58 

the Brenta to the sea. This was a glorious triumph for 
Italy, General Diaz by this battle taking prisoner 500,000 
men and capturing 250,000 horses, with vast supplies. This 
victory led to Austria's request for an armistice; and on 
November 4, 1918, Austria accepted the terms of the armis- 
tice granted by Italy; by these terms, Italy occupied all 
of Italia Irredenta, the national desire of many years. 

Note. — The great victory of October 24, 1918, was on the first an- 
niversary day of the Caporetto disaster. 

The Triumphs on the Western Front. — On July 15, 
1918, the Germans began an offensive, planned by von 
Ludendorff, with Paris as objective. On July 16th, they 
crossed the Marne. They next endeavored to capture 
Rheims, to the north of the Marne. This city was only a 
mass of ruins in front of the strong position of the moun- 
tain of Rheims, which guarded one of the roads to Paris. 
The French army here withstood the terrific attack, and 
did not give way. General Foch on July 18th, launched a 
powerful counter offensive of French and American troops, 
led by General Mangin, between Soissons and Chateau 
Thierry, from the Aisne to the Marne. This was the great 
second battle of the Marne, and here General Mangin in a 
three-day battle routed General Boehn and captured 35,000 
German prisoners. On July 21st, the Germans retreating 
northward, repassed the Marne, and the great German offen- 
sive became a race to escape ruin. In this great battle, 
nearly 200,000 Americans fought, forming about 30 per 
cent, of Mangin's total force. By this victory, 500 square 
miles of French territory were regained, the Marne route 
to Paris was closed, and the Germans lost the offensive, 
being placed permanently on the defensive. Thus, the sec- 
ond battle of the Marne, like the first, was one of the de- 
cisive conflicts of the war. 



^ 



59 

Note. — Count von Hertling, the German chancellor, said that he 
felt confident of success early in July, 1918. He said: ''We expected 
great events in Paris for the end of July. That was on the fifteenth. 
On the eighteenth, even the most optimistic among us understood that 
all was lost. The history of the world was played out in three days." 

From July 15th till the final surrender, Foch's campaign 
was made up of three great battles, of which the first was 
the second battle of the Marne. His next was the third 
battle of the Somme, where the British under General Haig 
won a great victory. This third battle of the Somme began 
on August 8th, and continued with intervals till September 
10th, when the Entente Allies reached the Hindenburg line, 
capturing all the territory gained by the Germans in their 
1918 drive. The third great battle fought by Foch might 
be called the battle of the Hindenburg line. 

Note. — On September 12-13, 1918, the Americans under General 
Pershing, attacking on both sides of the St. Mihiel salient, in Lorraine, 
captured one hundred and fifty square miles of French territory. This 
salient was where the French line coming south from Verdun made a 
sharp turn to the east at St. Mihiel, and Pershing's victory abolished 
the salient entirely. 

On September 26, 1918, Foch began this great third bat- 
tle. It was a coordinated movement along a front of about 
two hundred miles "by nearly a dozen armies, each of them 
larger than the combined forces of Meade and Lee at 
Gettysburg." By his directions, the French and Americans 
attacked the Germans in the Argonne, while the British and 
Belgians attacked in the north, near Ypres. While Luden- 
dorff was thus occupied on the flanks, a deadly attack was 
made by the British at the centre of the Hindenburg line, 
when Byng and Rawlinson attacked Cambrai. 

This great battle of Cambrai was a gigantic British thrust 
for about twenty miles between Cambrai and St. Quentin. 
It was the greatest British victory during the war. It be- 
gan on October 8th with an attack by Generals Byng and 



60 y 

Rawlinson. By October 10th, the Hindenburg line was 
destroyed, and became only a memory. In the resulting 
German retreat, among other points set free from German 
control were St. Quentin, Cambrai, and the great city of 
Lille, with a population of about 200,000. Speaking to 
General Haig regarding this battle 6f Cambrai, Foch said 
that it killed all German hopes of a successful defensive. 

All of November was a pursuit of the retreating Germans. 
Pershing's work in the final drive was to clear the Argonne 
forest, a little west of Verdun. This was a densely wooded 
country, almost roadless, and strongly fortified by the Ger- 
mans. Pershing with about 750,000 American troops, be- 
gan this task on September 26th. Every foot of the way 
was fought, the American advance averaging only three or 
four miles a day. By November 2d, they broke through 
the German lines ; on November 5th, they crossed the Meuse 
River, a stream relied on by the Germans as a strong bar- 
rier; on November 7th, they entered the city of Sedan. 
This battle is called by some the battle of the Argonne, and 
by others the battle of the Meuse. 

Note. — Marshal Foeh, speaking of this battle, told General Pershing 
that the words ''The Meuse" could ''be borne with pride upon the 
standards of the American army." 

By Sunday, November 10th, the broken German armies 
were fleeing eastward. On November 11, 1918, the armis- 
tice was signed by German plenipotentiaries at Foch's 
headquarters at Senlis, and the Great War ended in a glori- 
ous triumph for the Entente Allies. 

Note 1. — On November 11, 1918, the British captured Mons, in Bel- 
gium, the little town where they were defeated in August, 1914. 

Note 2. — The Great War ended on the morning of November 11, 
1918, when the armistice was signed at Marshal Foch's headquarters, 
at Senlis. The Germans, by the terms of the armistice, were obliged 
to evacuate all occupied and invaded territory, including Alsace- 
Lorraine, and to withdraw their forces not only behind the Ehine, but 
behind a line some twenty-six miles east of the river; to deliver the 



61 

possession of Cologne, Coblenz, and Mayence to the Allies, pending 
the signing of the peace treaty; to surrender to the Allies ten battle- 
ships, fifty destroyers, and one hundred and sixty submarines, with 
various cruisers; to surrender immense quantities of military sup- 
plies, five thousand locomotives, and all Allied prisoners. Various 
other restrictions were imposed by the armistice terms, the object be- 
ing to make any German resumption of hostilities impossible. 

The German fleet was surrendered to England on November 21st, 
the value of the ships being estimated at $350,000,000. The British 
Grand Fleet, with a few American and French vessels, in all four 
hundred ships, left their moorings in the Firth of Forth, Scotland, 
and sailing out fifty miles, drew up in two lines to meet the German 
ships, which were received by Admiral Beatty on the flagship ' * Queen 
Elizabeth. ' ' Eighty-seven TJ boats were surrendered at various times, 
this being the total number left after the war. The surrendered ships 
were finally interned in the Orkney Islands. 

Note 3. — A German revolution followed the defeat of Germany in 
the Great War. As early as November 3d, the red flag was raised 
on the battleship * ' Kaiser ' ' at Kiel, and the mutiny spread rapidly 
among the ships, resulting in the formation of a soldiers' council to 
control affairs in Kiel. In various German cities, such as Hamburg, 
Bremen, Munich, Cologne, and Essen, there were uprisings. On No- 
vember 7th, the Socialist party presented its ultimatum to the chan- 
cellor, Prince Maximilian of Baden ; and on November 9th, the Kaiser 
lost control. On November 10th, the Kaiser fled to Holland, fol- 
lowed shortly after by the Crown Prince. In Berlin, all governmental 
authority was secured by the Socialists, and Herr Friedrich Ebert, a 
Socialist deputy in the Eeichstag, became chancellor. It was decided 
that a German republic should be formed at once. The Eeds, or the 
Spartacus group, led by Liebkneeht, failed to secure control. Numer- 
ous minor republics and soldiers' and workmen's councils were estab- 
lished in different partes of the country, pending the final settlement 
of the revolution. 

On November 28, 1918, the Kaiser at Amerongen, Holland, signed 
a formal document, renouncing his right to the crowns of Prussia and 
Germany. 

Note 4. — Karl Marx (1818-1883), who founded German socialism, 
was banished from Prussia in 1849, finally settling in London. His 
chief work, ''Das Capital," appeared in 1867. He taught the doc- 
trine of collectivism. He said: ''In savagery, each one produces 
separately for himself; in our recent civilization, the many produce 
mainly for the few; in a more perfect) state, all will produce col- 
lectively for all." His doctrine ignores personal initiative and abil- 
ity, and therefore is impossible as a scheme of government! 

Note 5. — The Austro-Hungarian Empire was destroyed by the Great 
War, Emperor Karl abdicating on November 12, 1918. The Trentino, 
Trieste, and the Dalmatian coast, forming Italia Irredenta, will prob- 
ably become part of Italy. In November, 1918, Hungary became a 
republic, with Budapest as capital. About the same time the Czechs 



62 

of Bohemia^ Moravia, and Silesia united with the Slovaks of northern 
Hungary to form the republic of Czecho-Slovakia, with Prague as 
capital; of this republic, Thomas G. Masaryk became the first presi- 
dent. Another break in the empire occurred in 1918 when Jugoslavia, 
the new state of the Jugo Slavs (South Slavs), was formed, with Ser- 
bia as the ruling country. This will probably include Montenegro, 
Serbia, and the former Austrian provinces of Bosnia, Herzegovina, 
Croatia, Slavonia, Carniola, etc., which are inhabited chiefly by Slavic 
people. Its official name will probably be ' ^ The Kingdom of the 
Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes." 

Note 6. — The most prominent British leaders during the Great War 
were Lord Kitchener, David Lloyd-George, and Field Marshal Sir 
Douglas Haig. 

Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig was born in 1861. He fought at 
Khartum with General Kitchener, and served for three years in the 
South African war. He succeeded Sir John French as commander of 
the British forces in France and Flanders in 1915. He was made 
field marshal after the battle of the Sommel in 1916. 

Horatio Herbert Kitchener was born in Ireland in 1850, and early 
entered the British army. He became sirdar (dar'), or commander- 
in-chief, of the Anglo-Egyptian army in 1892. His first great ser- 
vice to England was his victory over the dervishes of the Sudan at 
the battle of Omdurman, near Khartum, in 1898, by which he 
established British control in the Sudan. He succeeded Lord Eoberts 
in command in South Africa in 1900, bringing the Boer War to its 
conclusion. For these services he w^as made an earl. From 1902 to 
1909, he was commander-in-chief of the Indian army. When the Great 
War broke out in 1914, Kitchener assumed command. He predicted 
that the war would last at least three years, and proceeded to build up 
a vast army. The German military staff called these inexperienced 
men ''Kitchener's Mob," but they became great soldiers. Lord 
Kitchener met his death at sea, when the ^British battle cruiser 
* ' Hampshire, ' ' bearing Kitcheneri on a mission to Kussia, was tor 
pedoed in June, 1916. 

David Lloyd-George was born in a Welsh village in 1863. He was 
raised by his uncle, who was a shoemaker and a lay preacher. The 
family was poor, and the boy had to work for a time in the coal mines. 
Lloyd-George finally took up the study of law; and because of his 
great oratorical powers, he was sent to Parliament, in 1890. He op- 
posed the Boer War; and he once risked his life to speak on this sub- 
ject at Birmingham, the home of Joseph Chamberlain, ''arch apos- 
tle of the Boer War. ' ' As Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 
Asquith cabinet in 1908, his budget was called revolutionary, because 
of the heav}^ income and inheritance taxes that he proposed. He de- 
fended the budget as a war budget for waging implacable war against 
poverty, expressing the hope that some day poverty and wretchedness 
might disappear from England. In 1915, he became Minister of 
Munitions, and organized British industries on a war basis. The 
progress of the war failed to satisfy England, and in December, 1916, 



63 

Asquith was superseded as Prime Minister by Lloyd-George. By his 
work as Minister of Munitions and as Premier, he was largely instru- 
mental in bringing the war to a successful end in 1918. 

Note 7.— The most prominent French leaders during the war were 
Marshal J off re, Marshal Foch, and Premier Clemenceau. 

Joseph Jacques Joffre was born in southern France in 1852. He 
served in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and later in South Africa 
and China. In 1911, he became chief of staff of the French armies. 
His advocacy of three-year compulsory military service, instead of 
a two-year service, helped to give France an army to resist Germany. 
His victory at the Marne, in 1914, made him famous throughout the 
world. 

Ferdinand Focli was born in 1851 in the Pyrenees section of France. 
He first saw war in the siege of Paris in 1870. As author of several 
works on military strategy, he was well known in Europe, He as- 
sisted in winning the battle of the Marne in 1914, and was made the 
commander-in-chief of the Allied armies on April 14, 1918. This 
unity of command gave his genius its opportunity, and brought about 
the def^it and surrender of Germany in November, 1918. He was 
made a marshal of France in August, 1918, as a result of his vic- 
tories. 

Georges Clemenceau was born in France in 1841. As a young man, 
he came to America, teaching French in an academy in Connecticut 
for a few years. He returned to France in 1869. Entering politics, 
he soon became one of the most influential members of the Chamber of 
Deputies. From the fury of his attacks in his newspaper and in the 
Chamber of Deputies, he is nicknamed ''The Tiger." He became 
prime minister of France in November, 1917. His successful work 
during the war entitled him at the age of seventy-seven to be hailed 
as the ' ' Deliverer of France. ' ' 

Note 8. — Some famous aviators were Captain Boelke and Captain 
Immelmann among the German airmen; Captain Ball and Lieutenant 
Warneford among the British; Captain Guynemer among the French, 
and Major Lufberry among the American. Warneford won the 
Victoria Cross for bringing down a Zeppelin in 1914; he was killed 
ten days later in another battle. Boelke and Immelmann killed about 
eighty French and British pilots, but both fell victims later. Captain 
Ball, in his machine called the ''Eed Devil," could go one hundred 
and forty miles an hour; he killed Immelmann in an air duel, but 
fell a few days later. Guynemer shot down fifty-four German ma- 
chines. Lufberry, an American ace (a victor in five combats), won 
eighteen battles in the air before he was killed in May, 1918, by an 
armored German machine. Another famous American ''ace" is Cap- 
tain E. V. Rickenbacker, with twenty-six victories since July, 1917. 

Note 9. — Many of the German prisons were terrible in their treat- 
ment of the British, French, and Eussian prisoners. Work in the 
coal and salt mines was sometimes given as punishment, while flog- 
gings were often so severe as to break the arms of the prisoners. 
Major Bach, of Sennelager, invited the women of adjacent towns to 



64 

enter the camp and mock at the agony of men whom he had strung 
up to posts. Wittenberg was the most notorious of these prisons. 
Here, dogs were sometimes urged to attack helpless prisoners. The 
heating was bad, and the prisoners, clothed in rags, suffered severely 
from the cold. During a typhus epidemic at the prison, the doctor 
and the commandant fled, leaving the camp without medical help of 
any sort. 

Some of the first prisoners released after the armistice were forced 
to walk fifty miles to reach the Allied lines, and were given no food 
and no money but what they could earn on the way. 

Note 10. — Bolo Pasha was a Frenchman who had received the title 
of pa.^ha .from Abbas Hilmi Pasha, Khedive of Egypt. The khedive 
and his attendant, Yusfeef Saddick, a former Egyptian judge, met 
Bolo at Monte Carlo in June, 1914. When the war broke out, the 
khedive became an agent of the Germans and went to Turkey to use 
his influence with the sultan. Eeturning to Switzerland, the khedive 
planned with Bolo Pasha to buy French newspapers with German 
money. An important influence in one Paris daily newspaper was 
purchased by Bolo with German money, and by this means German 
propaganda was spread and the French were urged to abandon the 
war. In December, 1914, the khedive was deposed by the British 
government for his treason to England. Bolo next took up his plot- 
ting with Count von Bernstortf, the German ambassador to the United 
States. He Avas finally arrested by the French government, tried and 
convicted of the crime of treason in February, 1918; he was shot in 
April, 1918. 

The ''Bonnet Eouge" ("Red Cap") was another French news- 
paper corrupted by German money. Its publisher and editor were 
arrested; the publisher, Miguel Almereyda, committed suicide in 
prison, and the editor, M. Duval, was shot for treason in July, 1918. 
For connection with the ' ' Bonnet Rouge ' ' case, M. Malvy, the French 
Minister of the Interior, and Joseph Caillaux, a former premier of 
France, were arrested. Malvy was tried and sentenced to banishment 
from France for his treason; Caillaux is still (1918) untried. 

Note 11, — The "Independent" in January, 1919, gave the numbers 
killed in the Great War as follows: Russian, 1,700,000; French, 
1,071,300; British, 706,726; Italian, 460,000; American, 58,478; 
German, 1,600,000; Austrian, 800,000. 

In 1918, the United States had an army of 3,664,000 men, of whom 
about two million were in Europe; France had 4,725,000 oflicers and 
soldiers under arms; Italy had about 5,000,000 soldiers during the 
war. Great Britain and her colonies in March, 1918, had an army of 
7,500,000, of which England furnished about 60 per cent., Scotland 
about 8 per cent., Wales nearly 4 per cent., and Ireland 2 per cent. 

The estimated total cost of the United States' participation in the 
war is fifty-five billion dollars, or about $550 for every inhabitant of 
the United States. 

Note 12. — President Wilson in a speech in Congress on January 8, 
1918, enumerated fourteen points as giving American war aims. These 



65 

fourteen points favored open diplomacy as opposed to secret alliances : 
freedom of the seas and the right of neutrals to their sea trade in 
peace and war; the removal of economic barriers such as excessive 
customs duties or special international trade agreements; the re- 
duction of armaments to the ''lowest point consistent with domestic 
safety ; " an impartial settlement of colonial claims ; the assisting 
of Eussia to develop "under institutions of her own choosing;" the 
restoration of Belgium; the freeing of all French territory and the 
righting of the "wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the 
matter of Alsace-Lorraine;" the readjustment along national lines 
of "the frontiers of Italy;" the giving to the people of Austria- 
Hungary ' ' the freest opportunity of autonomous development, ' ' thus 
granting independence to the Czecho-Slovaks and the Jugo-Slavs; 
the just settlement of the Balkan question; the freeing of subject 
peoples from Turkish rule; the establishment of an independent 
Poland; and the formation of a league of nations to afford "mutual 
guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great 
and small states alike." 

Note 13. — Prince Maximilian of Baden was appointed German 
chancellor on October 3, 1918, on the resignation of Count von 
Hertling. 

Note 14. — In an address in 1919, John W. Davis, the American 
ambassador to Great Britain, declared it would be difficult to exag- 
gerate American admiration for British courage and endurance during 
the Great War. He said: 

' ' Without taking so much as a single leaf from the well-earned 
laurels that crown the victorious brows of a heroic France, or Italy, 
or Belgium, or Serbia, or others of the Allies, it is not too much to 
paraphrase the words of the dying Pitt and say that: 'England has 
saved herself by her exertions and may well have saved the world by 
her example.' " 



66 

A CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR 

1914 

June 28, Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated 

at Sarajevo, Bosnia. 
July 5, the German leaders held a conference at Potsdam, deciding 

on war. 
July 23, Austria-Hungary sent an ultimatum to Serbia. 
July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. 
August 1, Germany declared war on Eussia. 
August 3, Germany declared war on France. 
August 4, German troops under von Kluck invaded Belgium. 
August 4, Great Britain declared war on Germany; Lord Kitchener 

became British Secretary of State for War. 
August 7, German troops entered Liege, Belgium. 
August 11, the German cruisers, ''Goeben'^ and ^'Breslau/' entered 

the Dardanelles. 
August 13, England and France declared war on Austria. 
August 20, Germans occupied Brussels. 
August 21-23, the battle of Mons-Charleroi, ending in the retreat of 

British and French troops. 
August 23, Japan declared war on Germany, and began the bombard- 
ment of Tsingtau, the port of Kiao-chau, China. 
August 26, the Germans burned Louvain, Belgium. 
August 26-September 1, von Hindenburg defeated the Russians at 

Tannenberg, East Prussia. 
August 31, Nicholas II. changed the name of the capital from St. 

Petersburg to Petrograd. 
September 3, the French government moved its offices from Paris to 

Bordeaux. 
September 5, the Entente Allies signed the Pact of London, agreeing 

not to make peace as separate nations. 
September 6-10, Joffre defeated von Kluck at the first battle of the 

Marne, causing a German retreat. 
September 12-17, the Entente Allies were repulsed at the battle of 

the Aisne. 
September 22, the British cruisers ''Hogue," ''Aboukir," and 

*'Cressy" were sunk by the German submarine ''U-9." 
October 9, Antwerp surrendered to the Germans. 
October 16-28, the battle of the Yser in Flanders, Belgium. 
October 17-November 15, the first battle of Ypres, in Flanders, by 

which the Channel ports were saved. 
October 28-December 8, Be Wet's unsuccessful rebellion against the 

British in South Africa. 
November 1, the British cruisers '^ Monmouth" and "Good Hope" 

were sunk off the coast of Chile by Admiral von Spee. 
November 5, England and France declared war on Turkey; Cyprus 
was annexed by England. 



67 

November 10, the German cruiser '^Emden" was destroyed by the 

' ' Sydney. ^ ' 
December 8, Bear- Admiral Sturdee sank the German ships ^'Schorn- 

horst," ' ' Gneisenau/ ^ and ''Leipsic" off the Falkland Islands. 
December 17, Egypt was made a British protectorate under a native 

sultan. 
December 24, German Zeppelins first raided England. 

1915 

January 24, the British gained a naval victory at Dogger Bank in 
the North Sea. ' 

January 28, the American merchantman, ''William P, Frye '' was 
captured by the German cruiser, ''Prinz Eitel Friedrich " and 
was later sunk. 

February 18, the Germans began a ''war-zone" blockade around the 
British Isles. 

February 19, the Anglo-French squadron began a bombardment of 
the forts of the Dardanelles. 

March 1, the British Orders in Council were issued, announcing a 
blockade of Germany. 

March 22, the Kussians captured the fortress of Przemysl, in Galicia, 
Austria. 

April 22, the Germans first used poison gas in attacking Canadians 
at Ypres. 

April 26, Entente troops were landed on the peninsula of Gallipoli. 

May 1, the American steamer "Gulflight" was torpedoed. 

May 2, the Russians were defeated by Austro-German forces at the 
Dunajec River, in Galicia. 

May 7, the British liner "Lusitania'^ was sunk by a German sub- 
marine. 

May 13, President Wilson sent a note of protest against German sub- 
marine warfare. 

May 23, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, 

June 9, William Jennings Bryan resigned as American Secretary of 
State. 

July 9, German Southwest Africa surrendered to British troops un- 
der General Botha. 

July-September, Russian Poland was conquered by the Germans. 

(Warsaw, the capital, was captured on August 5.) 

August 19, the White Star liner ' ' Arabic ' ' was sunk by a submarine. 

September 8, the United States "asked Austria to recall Dr. Dumba, 
Austrian ambassador here. 

September 25-October, a French offensive in Champagne made small 
gains. 

October 5, a Franco-British force was landed at Saloniki, Greece. 

October-December, the Austro-German-Bulgarian armies conquered 
Serbia. (Belgrade was occupied on October 9; Monastir, on 
December 2.) 



68 

October 12, the Germans executed Edith Cavell. 

October 15, England declared war on Bulgaria. 

December 1, the British under General Townshend retreated from 
Ctesiphon, near Bagdad, to Kut-el-Amara. 

December 3, the United States demanded the recall of Captain Boy- 
Ed and Captain von Papen, of the German embassy. 

December 4, Henry Ford with a company of pacifists sailed for 
Europe on the ''Oscar II." with the idea of ending the war. 

December 15, General Sir Douglas Haig succeeded Field Marshal 
Sir John French as commander-in-chief of the British forces in 
France and Flanders. 

December 20, the British began to withdraw their forces from Anzac 
and Suvla Bay, in Gallipoli Peninsula. 

1916 

February 1, the British liner ''Appam" was brought into Norfolk, 
Virginia, by her German captor. 

February 16, the Russians captured Erzerum, in Turkish Armenia. 

February 21-July, the battle of Verdun. 

March 24, the French steamer, ''Sussex," was sunk by a submarine 
in the English Channel. 

April 24-May 1, the Sinn Fein Eebellion in Ireland. 

April 29, General Townshend surrendered to the Turks at Kut-el- 
Amara. 

May 24, general conscription became the law in England. 

May 31, the naval battle of Jutland, or Skager Rack. 

June 5, Lord Kitchener was drowned when the "Hampshire" was 
sunk otf the Orkney Islands, Scotland. 

June 17, the Russians in a drive captured Czernowitz, the capital of 
Bukowina. 

June 21, the Grand Sherif of Mecca led a revolt against Turkish 
rule, and seized Mecca. 

July 1-November 17, the battle of the Somme. 

July 9, the German trade submarine " Deutschland " landed at Bal- 
timore. 

July 27, the Germans executed Captain Fryatt, of the British ship 
"Brussels." 

August 27, Italy declared war on Germany. 

August 27, Rumania entered the war as an Entente ally. 

August 29, General von Hindenburg became chief of the German 
General Staff. 

November 7, Woodrow Wilson defeated Charles Hughes as a candi- 
date for the presidency of the United States. 

November 21, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary died, and 
was succeeded by Karl I. 

November 29, Sir David Beatty succeeded Sir John Jellicoe as com- 
mander-in-chief of the British Grand Fleet. 

December 7, Mr. David Lloyd-George succeeded Mr. Herbert Asquith 
as British Prime Minister. 



69 

1917 

January 10, Dr. Alfred Zimmermann, of the German Foreign Oflace, 
cabled 'to the German minister in Mexico to secure an alliance 
^Yith Mexico. 
January 22, President Wihon in a speech suggested to belligerents 

a '"'peace without victory." 
Feliruary 3, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Ger- 
many and gave Count von Bernstorff his passports. 
March 11, the British under General Maude captured Bagdad. 
March 15, Czar Nicholas II. abdicated. 
April 6, the United States declared war on Germany. 
April 9, the Canadians captured Vimy Ridge. 
April 21, Mr. Arthur Balfour and the British mission arrived in the 

United States. 
April 24, Marshal JofPre and the French mission arrived in the 

United States. 
May 18, President Wilson signed the Selective Service Act, author- 
izing military conscription. 
June 7, the British blow up Messines Ridge. 
June 12, King Constantino of Greece abdicated. 

July 3, General Pershing and the American expeditionary force ar- 
rived in France. 
July 14, Bethmann-HoUweg, German chancellor, resigned, and was 

* succeeded by Dr. Miehaelis. 
July 20, Kerensky became premier of Russia. 

September 28, William D. Haywood and 100 members of the I. W. 
W. (Industrial Workers of the World) were arrested in Chicago 
for sedition. 
October 24, the Italians were defeated at Caporetto, and later re- 
treated to the Piave River. 
October 30, Miehaelis resigned as German chancellor and was suc- 
ceeded by Count von Hertling. 
November 7, the Bolsheviki leaders, Lenine and Trotzky, overthrew 

Kerensky 's rule in Russia. 
November 13, Georges Clemenceau succeeded Paul Painleve as pre- 
mier of France. 
December 3, the British completed the conquest of German hast 

Africa, the last of Germany's colonies. 
December 6, Halifax, Nova Scotia, was wrecked by the explosion of 
the munition steamer "Mont Blanc;" 1,500 persons were killed. 
December 7, the United States declared war on Austria-Hungary. 
December 9, General Allenby captured Jerusalem. 
December 28, President Wilson, by authority of Congress, took con- 
trol of American railroads. 



70 



1918 



February 5, the British transport ' ' Tuscania, " with 2,179 American 
troops, was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland, 211 lives being 
lost. 

March 9, the Russian capital was moved to Moscow. 

March 14, the Soviet Congress at Moscow ratified the Brest-Litovsk 
treaty between Germany and the Bolsheviki. 

March 21-April 1, the first German drive of 1918 began as the bat- 
tle of Picardy. 

April 14, General Foch was formally announced as commander-in- 
chief of all Entente forces. 

April 9-21, the second German drive of 1918 was halted before 
Ypres. 

April 16, Bolo Pasha was executed by France for treason. 

April 23, Captain Carpenter blocked the harbor of Zeebrugge, Bel- 
gium. 

May 25-June, German submarines sank 19 small ships on the Amer- 
ican coast, among them being the Porto Rican liner ' ' Carolina. ' ' 

May 27, the third German drive toward Chateau-Thierry began. 

May 28, the Americans captured Cantigny village. 

June 6, the Americans and French checked the German advance at 
Chateau-Thierry. 

June 9, the fourth German drive began. 

June 11, American marines captured Belleau Wood with 800 pris- 
oners. 

June 15 July 6, the Austrian drive in Italy failed. 

June 27, the British hospital ship, the ''Llandovery Castle," was 
torpedoed off the Irish coast, with a loss of 234 lives. 

July 15-18, the fifth and last German drive. 

July 15, Anglo-American forces began operations on the Murman 
coast, in northwestern Russia. 

July 16, ex-Czar Nicholas II. was executed by the Bolsheviki at 
Ekaterinburg. 

July 17, Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt, youngest son of ex-President 
Roosevelt, was killed in aerial combat, near Chateau-Thierry. 

July 18, the second battle of the Marne began, marking the begin- 
ning of Germany's fall. 

September 10, the Germans are driven back to the Hindenburg line 
of November, 1917. 

September 13, the Americans destroyed the St. Mihiel salient, near 
Metz. 

September 26, the Americans began their drive up the Meuse valley 
toward Sedan. 

September 29, Bulgaria surrendered to General d' Esperey. 

October 1, Damascus was captured by the British. 

October 3, the British captured the city of Lens, France. 

October 4, Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria abdicated. 



71 

October 8-10, the battle of Cambrai was won by the British, ending 

the Hiudenburg line. 
October 17, Lille, France, was taken by the British. 
October 24-November 4, the Italians, under General Diaz, routed the 

Austrians. 
October 26, Aleppo, Asia Minor, was captured by the British. 
October 31, Turkey surrendered to the British. 
November 4, Austria surrendered to Italy. 
November 7, the Americans captured Sedan. 
November 10, William II. fled to Holland. 

November 11, Germany surrendered and accepted the armistice terms 
of General Foch. 



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